Schnitzel Republic

The End

2010-12-10T06:00:00.000+01:00

Over the past three months....I've felt burnt-out on blogging. I'm not reading as much on Germany...but I'm reading more on business news in Europe. I could probably write more on German business news but frankly most folks really don't care for German business tidbits only. As for German commentary....I could still write a blog or two each month, but that's not enough to really keep the blog going.

So as of this day....the Schnitzel Republic has reached maximum capacity. It will no longer be updated, and I'll just leave it as is.

There are five things that I've learned from this experience on German blogging.

First, there is an interest. If I'd kept this up for another two years....I might have had a thousand viewers a day.

Second, some Germans were reading along my lines and agree with most of what I had to say. Surprisingly, an American can capture the essence of Germany....both good and bad.

Third, I think Germany is still a virtual unknown to most Americans. For those who spent two or three years as a GI in the country....they have the introduction and have some great memories. But there are millions of Americans with a curiosity and they'd like an outlet to grasp more of the land.

Fourth, as stuck-up as Germans can be....they also can surprise you at times. If you were stuck on a desert island without a MacGyver, then the next best to have is a German. They might build 500 percent of the boat you'd need to escape the island with....but that's the society that builds onto nothing.

Fifth, and final....what you really need to know in life....comes from Huns and Schmidt at the corner pub of a German village. They will tell the soap operas of the town, the gossip, the reasons to watch the terrible Sunday night political chat shows, the reasons for winter tires, the purpose behind autobahn construction, the detailed analysis over shoveling snow, the best and worst of German beers, and the secret to making a decent Schnitzel. They won't sit and do the tales of woes and sorrow like an Irishman. They won't blame the Tories for their miseries like an Englishman. They won't do stupid imitations of Italian politicians like Italian guys will do. And they won't talk about the socialist values of being a Greek....like a Greek would do. Huns and Schmidt are the reliable guys you can trust on German life.

So it's been fun and entertaining. After two years of German blogging....I can give it a rest and let some other fool do the writing now.

Germans and Schools

2010-12-09T08:23:00.000+01:00

A report came out yesterday....from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)....from the results of a survey on education across the globe. For the Germans....it was a kind of negative report. It didn't really give Germany a thumbs up or a thumbs down....but a middle kind of rating....which upset a number of folks because of efforts over the past five years.

Naturally, some politicians in Germany quickly came up with their angle of how to fix this.

The opposition party....the SPD....thinks that the teacher's path via the university system is kind of haphazard. They want standards....where you ensure better and more qualified teachers enter the system. If you think about it....it'd probably dilute ten percent...maybe even twenty percent of the entry group from ever getting into the teacher profession. I'm not one to forecast long term problems usually....but you might fix one problem and then create another problem in a decade, with a problem of replacing retiring teachers.

Another item suggested by the politicians is the idea of a full-day of school. Most German schools wrap up around 1:30 each day. Politicians think a full day would do wonders. More time in class, more results.

There are issues with this time suggestion of course. You'd have to convince teachers to accept another hour or two which I doubt they'd accept without a major pay-raise. Some would say the stress of another 90 minutes would be too much for them, and ask for retirement. Some would suggest that if a kid didn't pick up the information after what they currently offer....they would doubt that the kid improves with another hour or two.

Educational agenda folks exist in Germany...just as they do in the US. If you offer up a negative report, then it means something is broke. Rarely do you go back and review how these reports was generated or what they gathered to make the data "pure and clean".

My guess is that a couple of standards will be tossed into the pot and approved...and it trims off at least three percent of the folks going after educational degrees in the future. That doesn't really fix the substandard teacher mess in existence today, but it'd help toward 2020 and beyond.

As for the longer hours? I suspect that the teacher's union will stand up and accept 60 minutes onto each day....with a five-percent pay-raise attached and some one-time bonus (figure at least 700 Euro). Forget anything more than 60 minutes because it just won't sell. Oh, and along the way....some professor will eventually show a statistical analysis that another sixty minutes would likely only benefit twelve percent of the students anyway (just my humble guess on that suggestion).

Just a personal observation here, but if you look around November and December time-frame in your local German paper....you will notice all of these after-school extended private study deals to help your kid improve his results. Most expect at least 200 Euro a month for this two to three hours per week schedule. Over the past two decades, these study operations have grown and have a fair amount of business. Why? The answer is that kids aren't picking up what the teacher's expected of them in class....and they need private tutors to explain a lesson in a totally different fashion and in a smaller setting of twelve kids.

So a worried parent tosses 200 Euro a month for five months onto his must-pay schedule and has to find cuts in the family budget to afford that....if the kid is in serious jeopardy of screwing up his grades. If you have two kids....400 Euro might be expanded. And that's just for one weak area...what if the kid had two weak areas?

There's a problem that probably exists, but I doubt that politicians can ever get to the level of thinking at the local school level and grasping the significance of one simple lesson in math being a failure.

Airlines Update

2010-12-08T04:40:00.000+01:00

It's rare these days that you see more flights added between the US and Germany. Most folks would say that the system is fairly maxed out. Today, it was announced by Condor Airlines (the low-budget, no-thrill, peanuts-and-Coke airline of Germany) that they'd start a flight between Seattle and Frankfurt. This would start next summer and involve two flights a week.

The thing about this deal is that Condor has formed a partnership with Alaska Airlines. They are likely looking at this from the prospective of Germans wanting that "wild" two week vacation....where they fly into Washington state and spend a week there, and then work a ticket with Alaska Airlines to fly up and do an adventure for a couple of days....return to Seattle for a day of urban living, and then return to Germany.

The plus side? The Euro rate is to the advantage of Germans currently. I'd predict a large group of Germans taking advantage of these tickets with Condor.

Competition and State-run TV

2010-12-07T07:55:00.000+01:00

Today....roughly forty-eight hours after the big Wetten Dass accident.....news analysts in Germany are taking a long look at this competition angle of German state-run TV. Both ZDF and ARD management will say....even before the televised accident...that they have to be out front and competing against commercial TV networks.

I went through several German newspapers, and most offer the most updated info on Samuel Koch. They also take up some lines and discuss the competition angle. The major newspapers have a slightly negative view of how competition runs the network and challenge the notion that this is acceptable.

I was a regular viewer of both state-run channels from 1993 to 2009. It often surprised me to the extent that state-run TV went to compete. When it came down to buying rights to major sports events, the state-run management team were willing to spend freely and had no problem in paying significant sums of money to be the kingpin of various programing. This is true over the Tour de France coverage, major soccer coverage, and even racing. Toss in the Olympics as well.

Families tend to pay around 300 to 400 Euro a year (depending on what you want to admit to in your house), and that goes to this fund where state-run TV splits amongst the two big boys (ARD and ZDF), and then minor cousins (around 18 minor channels) and the new digital empire.

In the past couple of years, different segments of German society have challenged this entire concept of state-run TV because viewership is not at the levels of 1975 any longer. If you went to the younger crowd of 18-30....most Germans would insist on curtailing the network's ability to tax on consumers. If you only watch four hours of state-run TV a week.....it's hard to relate to your portion of tax given to the "mafia" (a title that a German used in a conversation with me over state-run TV).

If you gaze over at the top ten shows of each week....ZDF and ARD typically own six or seven of those shows. When they find the right formula....they tend to stick with it and keep the series in full swing. They know that a major Sunday Formula One race will get them a top-ten slot. They know that a major game between two soccer contenders will get them a top-ten slot. They know that Tour-de-France daily race will get them a top ten slot. So it entices them to pay whatever is required to own that property for the evening.

In the end, this accident on Wetten Dass doesn't settle much, but it simply tosses another log on the fire of state-run TV's issues. They've been competing for three decades since commercial TV became a reality in Germany (actually it had to start in Luxembourg because the licensing wall that the German government put up because the big boys didn't want competition). Normally, I'd say competition makes something better. In this case, it's a question whether they are any better for all the money and effort taken.

Humor in Secrets

2010-12-06T09:43:00.001+01:00

Typically....you don't expect state-classified material to have any humor. The US state department has proven that wrong.

Several years ago (2006), there was a bear episode in Germany. We can admit that it was the first bear to be seen in Germany in a hundred years at least. It's a long and sordid soap opera (I blogged the entire tale at the time).....but in the end....the Germans had to kill the bear. He was a threat.

Somewhere amongst all the WikiLeaks material, there's this analysis and discussion by the US State Department over repopulating the wilds of Germany.

There is this great quote then....by the writer: "Perhaps the greatest insight from the whole Bruno affair might be that despite the veneer of 'greenness' extolled by German society, modern Germany in fact coexists rather uneasily with untamed nature,"

I sat for a while and pondered over this commentary and remember the Bruno the bear episode in detail. There is an excellent point over this analysis. There is often bragging done (similar to cases in the US) where the government and foundations are working to reintroduce wild populations back into "outback regions". In this case, all it took was one simple bear to upset the locals.....and that got the bear onto the hit-list.

Up until this point, I had nothing much positive to say over the WikiLeaks episode. I don't think anyone gains. Some people may use a light term of transparency to suggest that secrets are bad. These however, are the same people who get frustrated when governments can't readily step in to fix an international problem and sit in the midst of the living room and conjure up various solutions to international problems based on the think-tank guy who just spoke on CNN or the BBC or channel one news.

The amusing thing in this story is that it's a brief analysis of a reporter over a secret commentary by a state department guy....over a dead bear in Bavaria. Wish I could get a job with the state department writing bear summaries. But knowing my luck...in 2015, WikiLeaks would publish my classified bear summaries and I'd get a reputation.

Guarded Enthusiasm

2010-12-06T02:15:00.007+01:00

Bloomberg Businessweek has an interesting short update: The Germany central bank is giving a thumbs up on the German economy for 2011....and for 2012.

German stocks look great. German business dividends look great. Domestic consumption is very positive. And the unemployment can only decline over the next two years.

The hint from the Bundesbank looks like two percent growth for next year, and at least 1.5 percent in 2012. All very positive numbers. Most state banks would be planning magnificent bonuses for their management team in a moment like this.

Would a German be in a hearty state of mind after hearing this? The truth is no. None of this would really make a German rush out to buy a new house, a new car, or a 60 inch LCD TV. It wouldn't even make a German plan on a bigger than normal vacation. In fact, it would even be questionable if it helps in an election year to give the stamp of approval to the party in charge.

So quietly, the Merkel team sits and scratches its head over great news. There's nothing they can get out of this.

Wetten Dass

2010-12-05T03:20:00.000+01:00

State-run German TV features a popular program which has been around for over thirty years....Wetten Dass. The theme of this live two-to-three hour show....is family entertainment. You have around six to eight stars (most internationally known), a singer or group, and then these five "stunts". The weight of the show is primarily on these "stunts".

Typically, these stunts are used as bets for the guests and everyone is smiling as they bet the kid can add forty-four columns of numbers and announce a solution in twelve seconds. Or you have the guy who takes forty beer cannisters and builds this standing column that he climbs in two minutes. Or you have a woman who can recognize the knee caps of her women's volleyball group and pronounce each person by their kneecap. The bet is always a secondary part of this whole act.

Last night, the boys at Wetten Dass had accepted a more dangerous stunt. This young German guy had offered to jump over five oncoming cars in the building....with spring-powered stilts. He actually succeeded with the first jump....avoided the second opportunity....and then came the third jump which went terribly wrong. He basically crashed down onto the ground (with a helmet on)....and just laid there. A pretty dramatic moment.

Medics were on the scene....quickly going into action....and they moved him to the local hospital.

The thing about Wetten Dass....which is the biggest sales item of the show....it's all live. So the host of the show.....Thomas Gottschalk....had to make some split second decisions. They carried the moment of medical personnel on the scene for a couple of minutes and then cut away. Then Gottschalk made the decision to run some clips of music for around ten to fifteen minutes. Finally, he said enough and stopped the show entirely. Since he'd been running the show in the mid-80s....it'd never been stopped like this.

Based on news from Germany....this guy is injured but little else is being said. I'm guessing at least a concussion and maybe some internal injuries.

Since 1993....I've probably watched around sixty of these shows. They run around eight to nine of these shows per year. They are highly organized and it'd shock folks because Gottshalk will bring out people who typically never do shows (Micheal Jackson was a great example). But over the years that I've watched....there were five or six stunts per year that I regarded as highly dangerous and I felt it was stupid to do this with live TV.

I'm guessing some manager with the state-run TV empire will sit down over the next month with Gottshalk and his team....and discuss the idea of no more thrilling stunts. You might still see dog tricks and such....but the deadly stunt period is now finished. The fact that they were successful for thirty years doing things like this.....was simply luck.

The Tolerance Issue

2010-12-04T05:48:00.002+01:00

It's an interesting item by the Scotsman newspaper....Germans are less tolerant of Muslims than most Europeans. The numbers are 34 percent of western Germans and even worse on the eastern Germans with 26 percent. The Dutch were on the high end of tolerance with 62 percent.

There are several questions over this poll taken and the results. Why the difference between east and west Germany? I suspect that having an influx with Muslims throughout the 1960s and 1970s in western Germany....caused some folks to have friendships or work situations with Turks. That type of environment didn't exist in eastern Germany. As for the influx with Muslims into eastern Germany today? Jobs haven't been bountiful and I seriously doubt that any significant number of Muslims have moved in. In most towns throughout the eastern part of Germany....you do have some Turkish restaurants....but it's not the quantity that you'd see in Mainz or Stuttgart.

Why a difference between Germany and its neighbors? I suspect that Germans have higher expectations. They can't see a foreigner moving into Germany....taking a job....and then NOT integrating as the German public would expect.

The educational problem? This is another part of the situation because Germans watch the stories on TV and see various Muslim kids who simply aren't achieving much in school and doomed for failure by age eighteen. I suspect that if you asked a German about potential rocket scientists coming from Muslim families in Germany....they'd start laughing and probably laugh hard enough to produce tears.

Could the numbers ever improve? I suspect that this is actually the peak....and if some massive terrorist action were to take place in Germany by a Islamic group....it'd solidify the German opinion even more. You could actually see more dismal numbers.

What could the Islamic groups do to reverse the trend? There are three simple things for a Muslim in Germany to do. First, why caused you to leave your old country? Deep down....something went wrong, and you need to examine the idea that Islamic traditions might have screwed up your old country enough to force you to leave. If so....using the same values for traditions here will just recreate the reason why you left. Second, if your traditions and expectations are solid and you truly believe in them.....why would you remain in a non-Muslim country? Finally, what comes first....your citizenship or your religion? If you ponder upon this question long enough....you might come to agree that religion only comes if you are a citizen of the right country.....so your religion is second to the values of citizenship.

It's an interesting poll and I doubt that Germans are surprised by the results.

Germans and Snow

2010-12-02T11:01:00.001+01:00

Over the last couple of days....snow has fallen across a significant portion of Germany. It is a bit early for drastic snowfall, but then luckily, Germans have "global warming" to blame (otherwise, they'd just blame God).

Snow is like science to Germans. If you sat down in a pub and asked a group of German men to comment on snow....they'd give you 300 pages of information and analysis over an entire evening....and almost forget that a soccer game was on TV.

First, they'd chat about the right tires. For an American, we traditionally want to use all-weather tires and slip on chain when absolutely necessary (when forced actually by the cops). For a German, it's winter-tires, period. No discussion. It's hard to find a German who might use all-weather tires except for their summer-tires. Winter-tires discussion could go on for an hour as each guy will tell his life story over the winter-tires that he's owned.

Second, they'd talk over the right salt for using on the house-steps or the sidewalk by the house. There are friendly environmental mixes, then the 1945-recipe which people still brag about, and then some cheapo mix that they got from the market and manufactured in Turkey. There will be the various directions given over how to toss the snow off the sidewalk and the proper use of the shovel when finished (it ought to be washed & cleaned).

Third, they'd chat on the topic of blankets and gear to carry in the car. Most Germans would refuse to carry anything extra in the car because they just refuse to stop or allow snow to hinder themselves. Other Germans are prepared and carry an entire bag with candles, a blanket, a bottle of water, and a shovel. Some German guys have a "snow-lite" bag and a "snow-heavy" bag....and keep it in the garage to toss in if they are driving a couple of hours in potential snow.

Fourth, they'd chat on snow statistics. If in a open environment where booze is flowing....most guys will admit there's no such thing as global warming and they've seen bigger snowfalls in the 1960s than today. People will carve out legends as they chat on the 1979 January snowfall across central Germany and all their woes. Some guys will chat for an hour on the difference between wet snow and dry snow....giving you a vast amount of information that you'd normally only hear from a Professor.

Fifth, they'd chat on the effect of salt on cars. Each guy has a story in his life about his 1976 Volkswagen that fell apart in six years because of rust. There used to be a massive amount of salt used on roads and Germans got to a point where they actually owned two cars....one for winter which was the old disposable car, and a nice car for the other eight months of the year. There are guys today that repeat this same practice although salt is used alot less and towns sometimes mix the salt with another solution to prevent rust episodes.

Sixth, they'd chat on roofs that have fallen in around their neighborhood from snow. It's rare but about every ten years in some towns...you have a major snowfall and some guy had structural issues to start with....and the snow just collapsed the room. Guys will remember this and bring up this neighbor's name a hundred times over the rest of their life as they turn this into a legendary piece of history.

Seventh, they'd chat on the right booze to drink after clearing a path on their sidewalk and returning to the house. Some recommend mixing it with the coffee....so the wife doesn't comment on drinking so early. Some will suggest just plain beer. And some will suggest an Italian wine (cheap of course) to settle your nerves after such hard work.

Germans need snow in a way....it gives them a different prospective on life, and gives them a moment to ponder and think about things... intensely. I suspect some of the greatest inventions in history....came from Germans who were cramped up in the house during a snowstorm and nothing to do but sit and think. Maybe, that's a good thing.

Stuttgart 21: A Successful & Failed Negotiation

2010-11-30T23:24:00.000+01:00

It's mostly as I noted from today's lines:

Zeit.de: A transparent arbitration.....a civil tone....lingering questions. As Zeit noted....there is this question over planned capacity which model simulations will have to show that occur and prove that the numbers are correct in assuming that 30 percent more capacity does exist in peak times. Even Zeit points that folks around Stuttgart did learn that public participation is possible in this type of discussion.

Sueddeutsche.de: Some winners....no losers....fire protection was discussed....and more handicapped access. Sueddeutsche points out that discussion did deal with the speculation issues that folks had brought up, and likely starves off this being brought back up again. This by itself spins a fair amount of negativity off the future.

Schweizer Fernsehen: Stuttgart 21-Plus....safer.... efficient....and environmentally friendly. Trees which would have been cut in the near future....still get cut, but the rest would end up being move (transplanted). Total trees discussed in the overall plan to be cut was 280....so a great portion ended up on the transplant list. Total cost of changes and improvements? The bulk of this centers around the suggestion that two additional tracks be carved out of the city. The suggestion here is 500 million Euro....$675 million dollars roughly. Noted by the Schweizer reporter....several elements of the Greens stood and said "no" (amongst them, the "Park Guards" group). This is the problem with the loose-net Green organization.....you could have ten percent happy with this discussion....fifty percent unhappy....and the rest wondering over the agenda in the first place.

N-TV.de: Termination too costly to consider....cries of shame....facts check largely succeeded. N-TV captured the comment that Heiner Geissler was very happy over the media coverage of the talks which kept the local population involved and demonstrated a number of key points. N-TV pointed out a summation point from the opposition crowd that climate change was never part of the planning process. And near the end, N-TV did bring up the fact that protest marches now from hostile feelings....would have to face winter weather. This is typically not what protest enthusiasts desire when wishing for major crowds.

A conclusion? No....just moving to round two. The big point now is the March election. If the SPD and Greens are capable of generating up a huge amount of interest....then they perhaps capture fifty percent of the control necessary between the two of them....to flip the whole project in a different direction. The curious thing....is that SPD politicians had uttered approval of the project (at least in the city region)....up until a year ago. If the SPD does come up very negative over this now and the press asks why the change....then they look a bit foolish.

My perception is that getting fifty percent of SPD and Green votes will be tough because of the general feelings by the media over a very open and friendly discussion. As for Heiner Geissler? He probably deserves a Nobel Prize for something....but I doubt that anyone would agree that "peace" would fit into the award description.

The End is Not So Near

2010-11-30T12:29:00.000+01:00

What could be considered the final round of realistic talks on the Stuttgart 21 issue (the new railway project destined to take ten years) started yesterday.

Stern reports that things are going to be difficult in terms of any middle ground. Several options that the Greens wanted....will not be part of the negotiation.

One example: a vote locally on the project....which lawyers from the region did agree that it opened various legal questions. You could have a case where the public might use this as a reason to question every single road or infrastructure project for years to come....which wouldn't help the city or the public.

The odds of any acceptance by the Greens? Based on a dozen newspaper readings from the region....I'd bet on no acceptance and some kind of court challenge to move forward. Toss in the election in the spring and you've got a four-star mess.

Adding to this deal is an effort to edge out and prevent land or property speculation along the routes affected. The Greens wanted this on the table and it represents their wave of the hat to the commoner in the city. One could sit and speculate that various routes were drawn five years ago and people went into affected areas at the time and bought property then....knowing that it'd go up in ten years. It's a common practice and gets speculators ahead of the game.

Bottom line? I expect no happy campers from these talks and the March elections will be the next round of "answers". You can imagine a bunch of politicians standing there now....wondering how exactly they can fix this to make people happy. And if you were wondering what land speculators are doing? I'm betting they are meeting with opposition politicians (probably not the Greens) and charming them with various ideas of stopping this entire discussion. Another election by the end of 2011? Yeah....you might want to start thinking about some talk over this and some hurt feelings from non-results.

The Little Guy Confidence Subject

2010-11-30T05:37:00.001+01:00

The Ifo Institute has a fairly significant mission in Germany. They measure small business confidence.

In the world of commercial affairs, it's typically the business world that really reflects growth and consumer confidence that connect to the little guy and mean something to regular households. If a guy owns a 5-man business operation, and he's really down over business....then folks around assume that attitude, and then worry about their future and stability. If the boss comes into work grinning and smiling....it's a attitude that carries over, and the employees go home.....giving off the same enthusiasm.

The same logic works with a 4k man operation where the CEO walks boldly in and talks up orders and folks then relate that "safety" to buying a new car in the spring, or taking a four-star vacation in the fall.

The Ifo guys have a magic number that relates to business confidence, and it's the highest that it's been since the Berlin Wall went down (back to 1990). They admit, if you go back to 2009....it was a terrible number and reflected one of the worst economic stumbles in decades. Germany was in serious trouble in the spring of 2009. So we've come to this recovery phase now...eighteen months later. This is a 3.4 percent growth period for 2010, but even for 2011....the government is still talking about a 1.8 percent period of growth (something that some countries haven't seen in years).

The job market is moving, cars are selling, and it appears the next twelve months ought to be an awful positive period for the government and the nation. If you look around Europe....there might be one or two others in a somewhat positive moment....and everyone else is still waiting on things to settle (their recovery could be five years away).

The amazing thing is that if you go down to the local pub....there will sit Huns and Karl....and the topic of recovery isn't on their top twenty-five items of discussion. This is the fascinating part of this story. Germans aren't exactly bragging about the recovery....they simply participate in it. It's the business community that brags, and of course...the political folks. The local guys in the pub, Huns and Karl, will sum up the scores of soccer from the previous night, discuss the latest Penny Markt robbery by Russians, and perhaps settle on the worst landscaped yard in the local village.

Germany & WikiLeaks

2010-11-29T01:13:00.000+01:00

Today, after you view some of the comments coming out of WikiLeaks....you kinda end up scratching your head over anything worth saying. Yes, there was a judgement that Chancellor Merkel was not prone to take any risks, and rarely showed any creativity. Shocking? No. If you asked any German guy in a pub over a beer if Merkel would make a great soccer coach....they'd start laughing because she simply doesn't want to ever take risks, and she wasn't out making new strategies out of old strategies.

Yes, the might analytical power of the US State Department had classified this nature of Merkel as secret, yet most every German would have repeated the same statement.

Then you had the comment on the Foreign Minister Westerwelle.....as incompetent and anti-US. Again, this comes out of a state department analyst. Most Germans in a pub setting....would readily agree that Westerwelle took a job that he doesn't really fit into.....and as for the anti-American comment....it'd be hard to prove or disprove this.

There's probably dozens of messages that provide some moment of analysis over what German leadership said or did.....and some bold interpretation over the situation.

My belief is that a guy who regularly reads my blog probably gets better "intelligence" over Germany....than what the State Department dreams up. Although I admit that food and beer make into my blog a fair bit and the State Department would never....ever....report on things like that.

So the bold shock of WikiLeaks has come and gone. By Tuesday....folks will have forgotten the comments, the secret messages, WikiLeaks, and gone back to study the latest soccer scores.

No Such Thing as Good News

2010-11-27T07:09:00.000+01:00

I've blogged a good bit this year over the economic boom hitting Germany. At the beginning of this week...came the news that this was the best period in twenty years. If you sat and asked a German at the local pub about this....they just wouldn't be that happy over this.

Today? More news came out....suggesting that the guy in the pub might not be totally wrong. The inflation rate for Germany is also accelerating as well. In fact, it's faster than any of the other European countries as well. But you have to add this new statistic to the pile as well....the economy for the next year is expected to grow by 3.7 percent. In most countries....this would really spin folks up and make them happy....but a German would just sit in the pub and ask for another beer.

For almost any other country in Europe....folks would be happy and really motivated. For a German....it's hard to find good news....especially on the economy.

It Can Only Cost More

2010-11-26T09:42:00.000+01:00

For those who haven't been watching local news in Germany....the Stuttgart 21 affair continues on in high gear. This is the project to bring modern railway operations into Stuttgart, involving a vast number of new subway tunnels and an amazing amount of money. And the project is destined to take a decade to complete.

Today, it came out that while the local Greens have really fussed over and demanded a hand in the project....things in the mediation part of the deal are about to embarrass them in a major way.

The head guy in the negotiation team is now hinting that joint talks to fix a number of problems which the Greens have mentioned....WILL push up the cost of the project. This mediator....Heiner Geißler.....isn't mixing any nice or pleasant words with the description of "fixes" to make everyone happy.

You can imagine the Greens meeting off in a secret session and asking themselves what happens when the public realizes that the things they've asked....actually pumped the cost up even more. They will probably bring in a budget person to analyze the new requirements and confirm they screwed up. Then they will bring over a public affairs guy to figure out how to explain this by Saturday, so that the Sunday editions of news to properly quote the leadership of the Greens.

The Stuttgart public has already accepted the project for the most part (three months into this project roughly at present). They know the cost, and the time conditions. I would speculate the biggest negative for a local guy in town is the traffic shut-down of various streets during the construction phase. For a regional guy....the discussion over cost might matter more.

As for this working in the favor of the Greens in the upcoming election in the spring? If this comes true over increased costs because of Green changes....the big massive attraction to the Greens will likely not occur. Is the negotiation team using the naive business view of the Greens to cast them in this position? The likely answer is yes.

I can imagine the Greens demanding that this park and that park be spared, and the plans guy just smiling because there's another 5 percent cost increase here and there....which the Green folks really can't comprehend triggering because they saved a park in the city. This ought to make a great movie one day....how the Greens saved so much land, and cost so much more in building costs.

Christmas Shopping in Germany

2010-11-25T14:30:00.002+01:00

This is one of my advice blogs....for those who might have questions on Christmas shopping in Germany. Call it ten things you ought to know.

First, big and medium-sized towns in Germany have Christmas markets. Typically, there's fine on-the-street food and beverage to take advantage of, and hand-made gifts to buy around these markets. You can figure an entire afternoon to waste on a big Christmas market, like Frankfurt, Wiesbaden or Stuttgart.

Second, there is no Sunday shopping in Germany. This is something that the public probably would just jump into and really get peppy about but German employees who work for these stores really don't want the hassle involved and lose that precious Sunday.

Third, traffic is frankly....a big hassle. My advice is to use public transportation whenever possible or just park and leave the car for the rest of the day at one location. Even in a medium-sized town....it's a pain to move around, especially after 4PM.

Fourth, for these electronic shops on the edge of towns with 200-car parking lots....get to the site by 8AM or just forget about it. From the first of December through the end of December....it's one brief window at the beginning of the day or just forget about it.

Fifth, these Stollen-breads that you see at the bakery....are dry as a bone. So you have to have coffee with it, and plenty of coffee. By early January, the Stollen period is finished....thankfully.

Sixth, Germans have yet to really get into on-line buying for the holidays....so they still pursue the excitement of holiday shopping in person. That means crowds.

Seventh, if you have a good postman or cleaning lady or the plumber or the electrican....it's customary to give a bottle of wine (not the cheap stuff, please).

Eighth, don't expect any help at stores during this period. For every customer hoping for some advice....there's forty more Germans lined up and hoping the same. Do your research before arriving at the store.

Ninth, if you can shop on Monday through Friday....do it. If you can skip Saturday shopping....please do it. By noon on a Saturday in the midst of any shopping district....you've hit maximum density and suffering.

Tenth, when you've hit your peak and really need a moment of relaxation from shopping....sip a cup of gluhwine. It's a warm sugared-over wine which will warm you up. Typically....you don't want more than one an hour. If you sip four cups in 90 minutes....you probably are drunk and best not have a charge card on you to buy stupid gifts.

Nothing Makes Sense

2010-11-24T02:13:00.000+01:00

There is a piece over on the Local...an opinion piece....that chats over unsatisfied Germans. It's an interesting piece to ponder.

First, Germans are strangely dissatisfied currently. The economy is actually recovering. German stocks are paying dividends and actually increasing in value. German banks are recovering. The unemployment rate is reversing. Cars are selling although it's not as high as it used to be. Folks ought to be very happy....and they aren't.

The support for Merkel's strategy? It's strangely not connecting. Germans are actually mostly unhappy with the CDU and FDP engagement....but then they can't say anything great about the SPD. The Greens? They gain but it's off the SPD numbers mostly.

Second, Americans are dumping mostly on the Germans. The economy in the US hasn't really recovered. The strategy put out by the Obama team hasn't really done as much as the German plan. The US needs some angle to cheapen the dollar and get Europeans...especially Germans...tied into buy cheap American products. They'd like to be the new "China" to Europe. The logic in this is silly....but there's little else to hope for.

So on one side....you've got mostly unhappy Germans who ought to be happy, and on the other side....mostly happy Americans for no apparent reason. It's like an episode out of the Twilight Zone.

The Google War?

2010-11-24T01:19:00.000+01:00

As some of you remember from a couple of weeks ago....numerous Germans stood up and said they didn't want their house featured on the street-level area of Google maps.

Well....it came to be today....featured in the news...that some folks have taken to tossing eggs at a house or two who dropped out of the Google street-level project.

Now, I won't say this is a major war or anything....but it is being reported already and making some folks take notice of the fuzzy imaged houses in their town. I would take a guess that we will start to see some Google holiday where locals do stupid things and the media does a knee-jerk reaction over what triggered this.

Euro Woes

2010-11-23T01:32:00.000+01:00

There is a great article over at the Financial Times today....over how the Euro might just collapse and come to an end...because of Germany.

It's an interesting scenario. Germany has put up with lots of controls over the past decade. So here are the Germans in a perfect world....they saved to meet the bad days...and some other neighbors who never saved...are knocking at the German door for money. If it had just been the Greeks...things might have been ok.....but frankly, with Portugal, Spain and Ireland in this shadows for money...this just isn't a simple case.

It would be curious to know if some alternate German plan existed for D-Marks to be issued. My guess is that a small group of German economists have studied the idea and know the entire schedule to switch back over.

The shock will be for the Spanish, Irish and Portuguese. They need someone to rescue them other than the banks....because they can't afford the massive changes that banks would demand for their loans.

Just Some Signs

2010-11-22T00:16:00.000+01:00

Germany is this unique place where signs really matter. So when you travel on the autobahn or the back-roads of Germany....you have to pay attention. Germans spend a lot of time thinking about signs and how they relate to life and safety. Signs are geared to save you time or effort.

When I arrived in Germany in 1978, I spent almost an entire weekend memorizing the stupid driver's license manual and there were well over 120 signs that you had to grasp and you had to pass two separate tests for your license. One was the sign test and you had barely thirty minutes to get forty out of fifty signs correct. That barely gives you 30 seconds on each to recognize and ID it.

This sign for example.....is supposed to tell you that the primary road curves, and the other two roads have come to an end and must stop. So you just keep driving on the curved road. This didn't make alot of sense to me but eventually....after a year of driving around....I realized it made perfect sense.

The problem with this sign is that if you come out of the other two roads....you have to come to a complete stop. No yield or a 'California-stop'.

Then I came to this 'no entry sign'. I came to discover that Germany has alot of roads that are one-way. Almost every village has at least one no-entry, and most have a dozen....just for a small village.

It's important to remember this sign, because if you were to screw up on this identification.....there'd be a hefty traffic ticket involved.

I worked with a guy who violated the sign in his neighborhood because there was a shortcut that he'd learned about. It was a 300 foot piece of road that he needed to cover and it'd cut two minutes out of his trip. The sad thing is that he used this violation for a year...until the German cops came up one day and were standing there....and handed a ticket involving a fair amount of money.

The einbahnstrasse sign is simply a one-way sign. Again, we go back to this issue that you find in villages and towns....one-way streets. Once you come up against this sign...it's best to follow the arrow and get to an exit point.

Finally, I come to a new sign which has only appeared in the past five years....its the umwelt sign.

If you live in a major town like Berlin, Hamburg, or even Wiesbaden, then it's likely to have a major part of that town which is forbidden for older model cars. How do you know your situation and your car?

Well...there's these decals which you are supposed to have on the windshield which would note a green, yellow or red zone. Your local mechanic can establish the year model of your car and check it out.

This umwelt deal is supposed to clean up the fumes around these major cities and project a very 'green' environment.

You Can Smell It in the Air

2010-11-20T09:05:00.000+01:00

There's a big meeting of the Green Party players of Germany this weekend. Folks are pretty peppy and excited....they've got the best poll numbers that they've seen in decades. There's a internal belief that they could pull twenty percent in a national election. Naturally, they'd be taking the plus-up from the SPD party who are confronting a serious loss of public support in the past year.

For the Green's, it's a double-edged sword. They've become this magnet for public support now, and they would admit in public forums that they've moved slightly to the center to get some of that support. They aren't as "green" as they were five years ago. In a way, they are losing part of their charm and character. Yes, they are becoming like the other political organizations that talk about being 'green' but aren't quiet that 'green'.

If you go back to the early seventies, the Greens were this far left political group with a dozen agendas and nothing much else. They never had any real clear economic agendas....or agendas related to retirement....or agendas related to jobs in Germany.

There is a evolution going on in Germany today. The Greens, the Linke Party (the far left Commies), and the SPD party.....have all flipped themselves into a odd group of identification. To be honest, there's not that much of a big difference between all three. If they combined themselves....they'd easily take fifty percent of the vote in the next election. I'm guessing the Greens really don't want to hear that.

Somewhere off in the distance of the Green party....is a fairly radical group of Greens....who really hate this centralist view that the party has taken. I'm guessing in five years that they will upset enough....to pack up and leave the party, and then create a new Green party for the far left....to make five percent of the population happy with radical Green political policies.

So folks will be smiling at this weekend meeting but they know there's a limit to this success. There's a change coming.

It Would Come, Sooner or Later

2010-11-18T04:07:00.000+01:00

Germany is the only place on the face of the Earth where a guy could be dead almost twenty years, and his song might actually hit number one on the singles chart.

Israel Kamakawiwoole's "Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" is the tune. Now number one for the eighth week in a row, released in 1993.

I sat and heard it almost eighteen months ago in Germany when it was being tossed around on Saturday afternoons by German radio stations.

How to explain this tune's survival in Germany? I think's it's just the unique nature of the song. Israel would likely be shaking his head....number one after being released almost twenty years ago?

Germans and Christmas

2010-11-17T05:18:00.000+01:00

We are up into the Christmas season now in Germany. Most Americans might be pleasantly surprised at things they encounter. So this is my list of ten German things of interest during this season.

First, food-wise, there is zero chance of you losing weight over the three-day period of Christmas (24-25-26). Duck, Turkey, Goose, Rabbit, and Fish figure into this equation. Traditionally, you end up with a big meal on the evening of the 24th. Then you've got a big meal at lunch on the 25th. And you have another big meal on the 26th. You can figure at least three to six pounds gained from the regular meals and the cookies consumed.

Second. Shopping is typically finished by 10AM on the 24th (Mon-Sat) in most villages, and by noon at most major stores. If you need anything...you'd best plan this and have bought it by the evening of the 23rd. Remember, the 26th is a holiday and nothing will be open on that day either.

Third. For Germans, presents are always opened on the evening of the 24th. The negative here is that if things have to be assembled....you will have the pleasure of messing with this stuff into the late hours of the day.

Fourth. Booze figures into the holiday schemes and various possibilities exist.

Fifth. German TV traditionally offers Rambo, alien movies, and various movies that you'd never see on American TV around the Christmas holidays. Don't ask me the logic....I suspect it's because only the younger generation watches TV during this 72-hour period. To be blunt, I'd just turn the TV off or pop in your own favorite Christmas movies.

Sixth. Travel during this period would really challenge a person. If you try to fly out via the airport....you will find fewer flights and very few folks in the airport. If you have any car problems....expect it to take a long time to find a mechanic to fix the car or a tow-truck to recover the car. Hotels will take you but you might want to make sure about your meal situations because some hotels don't run their restaurant during this 72-hour period.

Seventh. By the evening of the 26h....kids mostly aim for the next major event....fireworks on sale within three days for New Years. There's a short period after Christmas where shops will be selling some nifty fireworks. Kids and adults will easy spend $20 to $50 on packages of fireworks. One word of caution....you have to fire everything by 1 January. Don't hold back.

Eighth. Once you've unpacked every present and every box....now comes this event of smashing everything as flat as possible for your stupid paper trash cans out front. It may take you three trash periods before you gets rid of all the excess.

Ninth. This is the wrong time of year to upset your German neighbors. Fit into the local customs and avoid anything that might stress them out.

Tenth. Germans put a tremendous amount of planning into this 72-hour period. You might be shocked at the list of things that a German housewife will have put up on the wall during the week prior to this event. There will likely be seven different shopping runs during the final five-day build-up. And you can forget about any last minute changes....things have to occur as planned. Get used to that.

The Greeks and the Germans

2010-11-16T03:39:00.000+01:00

Over the past year....the Greeks have kinda been in the background of Germany. After the full-blown Greek economic crisis....Greece ended up on its knees. They'd basically screwed up....dozens of times....and kept telling folks over two decades of great numbers...when they weren't any great numbers. The Germans gave their typical view of how to fix things, and the Greeks objected.

This week....the Irish came around to admitting they were in bad economic times....for differing reasons from the Greeks. The Greeks decided to pop up and blame Germany on the rise in borrowing costs going on in Europe.

I stopped and pondered over the typical difference between Germans and Greeks. I've spent two weeks of my life in Greece, and fifteen years in Germany. I admit I know more on Germans, but I've had a chance to observe Greeks and make a few observations.

Greeks tend to have a family view of success. If you do well...you ought to share in your success with your brother, your cousin, your uncle, etc. For a German, it's a singular view of success. A German doesn't typically share his fortune or get the family into his successful restaurant business. On the other hand, a Greek also shares his misfortunes and lack of success also with the family....which the German doesn't typically do.

Greeks and Germans both have an expectation of the government taking care of them. The difference between the two is that Germans have a price-tag attached to the bill and can tell you where the breaking point is. The Greeks don't know the price....don't care about the price....and will just spend on and on until someone mentions that they've pretty much spent every single penny they had.

Laziness? Well....yeah. Germans are this breed that hates any element of laziness. You can note them in the yard on a Saturday morning....spending time to trim everything and make it all appear proper. Germans put effort into a project. The Greeks? They tend to need a bit of encouragement....then a bit more encouragement....and then a bit more of encouragement.

For a Greek....tomorrow is another day and if we've got work left....then it's not a big deal to continue on with a project. For a German....you wrap up the project today and don't waste time on what could be accomplished today.

If you got into a war situation....the Greeks would all eventually argue about tactics or discipline or life in the barracks. The Germans would have the map and expect each goal of the day to be accomplished, then you could talk about strategy or things you hate.

These are two very different societies, and it's almost amusing watching the two debate on things because they just can't see eye to eye on anything. Germans learn from screw-ups and Greeks tend to discuss the screw-ups but never get to a lesson's learned stage.

I'm pretty sure that the fat lady hasn't sung on this mess....and we'll just get more of complaining between the two.

The Good Nazis?

2010-11-15T06:52:00.000+01:00

The US came out over the weekend and kinda admitted that after World War II....it kinda took in all these Nazis. It wasn't totally clear on the actual number and I suspect no one has a true tally because lots of folks had different ways of handling this issue of entering the US.

Reasons why? Frankly, if you were a German Nazi of high standing in Germany....you just couldn't stay in Germany after the war. Folks were going to ask questions and various degrees of legal detention were going to be brought up. It'd be safe to admit that Chile, Argentina and Latin America was a major place to hide out....but if you had something of value...from technology or information....it made sense to negotiate with the US on a entry permit.

So, should any of us really be shocked? I suspect that certain groups will say it's ethically wrong....but you weren't standing there in 1945 and didn't have the prospective that we have today. I would also imagine that we probably would have seen political Nazis differently from German military leaders.

So it's done. Are we going to punish anyone from the 1945 era for this "crime"? No. Anyone for putting someone in jail for this episode? I doubt it. Historians will center their vision on this topic for a year or two....and then put it down for a decade. Frankly, you reach a point where there's a brief flame and then it's gone. You can't rewrite a vast amount of history on this topic.

As for a defense of this whole thing? Maybe these were the good Nazis. We are always bombarded with this German label on Americans of the "bad Americans" and "good Americans".....so maybe that logic existed then. It would be curious to know where they ended up and if they built up mega empires of wealth or technology. If there was a part two to this story....maybe that's what the New York Times ought to work on next.

Europeans and Friendliness

2010-11-13T09:05:00.037+01:00

Friendliness is a difficult thing to measure around Europe. For an American, we are always looking for a friendly nod, a handshake, a hug, or some moment when the other guy is just acting in a friendly way. To be truthful...you can find Germans who are actually overly friendly, although it might not be in the manner that you'd expect.

I always considered the Italians and British to be about the most friendly folks that you could bump into when traveling around Europe. Every single Italian is like a local guide and wants to give you the best restaurant for a meal or a glass of wine. For Brits....all you have to do is admit you are lost...and suddenly you've got a cast of crazy characters wanting to give you twelve lines of information on how lost you are, where you got lost, and how you might regain your compass points (they will list eight points in the local area to remember).

Number three on my friendly list are the Danes. They tend always offer a helping hand and you'd almost feel at home in Denmark.

I won't go to a bottom of the list group because it really doesn't help. Sometimes...you'd be shocked at some car problem you have in a isolated Bavarian village, and then discover that the local mechanic does speak English and going way out of his way to help. You could be in Amsterdam and have some local spend ten minutes explaining how things work there. You could actually be standing in the midst of Paris and some friendly character comes up to point in the right direction to recover your bearings.

So I'm not trying to say negative things about anyone in Europe. It's just that you ought to have a lesser set of expectations. Going to Europe isn't like visiting Murfreesboro, Tennessee. If you start at that level....you probably will be happy and satisfied. And remember....they are observing you at the same time.

A German Roadmap

2010-11-12T09:51:00.030+01:00

Around December of 1998, I made this decision to retire from the military in Germany....and stay to work in Germany as a contractor on base. Naturally, the tax test came to apply, and I ended being forced to get a visa and become "Germanized". On day one of my decision....I walked over to the base personnel office and asked for the roadmap for this visa business. They just laughed, and said all they knew was the first step started at the local town-hall. That was it.

So I went to the town-hall and started step one. I asked about all the other steps. They laughed. They only knew step two....at the county court house where I'd actually apply for the visa.

I eventually discovered that no one had a roadmap. All of these little dealings....from the driver's license to getting your vehicle re-tagged....came from each person in the next step in the line.

I was kinda shocked. I thought Germans would have more of a process, but I eventually discovered that most Germans know almost nothing about the process, and have long since forgotten how they acquired their driver's license. After a while, I wrote down notes and had a 21-odd step process sheet. The curious thing was that it only applied to the local area of Kaiserslautern.

Complicated? I suspect that if Germans knew the hassle involved and how silly some of these forms are....they'd probably try to fix the system. Course, maybe I'm wrong....and they'd actually double the forms and the hassle.

What are the three things you should expect in this painful experience? First, have a sense of humor because none of this is really intentional. Second, don't worry....Germans won't offer any hugs or sympathetic feelings over your ordeal. Third, at the end of this mess....is the tax guy and then you realize the real mess that you've climbed into.

Germans and their Cars

2010-11-11T09:29:00.030+01:00

ADAC is Germany's premier autobahn road service organization. When ADAC speaks on cars....people stop and listen.

This week, ADAC published a customer satisfaction survey. The curious thing is that the Germans are most happy with..... Subaru cars. Not Volkswagen. Not Porsche. Not Opel. Not Audi.

At the bottom of this satisfaction survey? France's Renault.

I would be the first to admit that Germans have high expectations. If a German owned a Chevy and had to visit the dealer more than once in an entire year...he'd be furious. If some problem continued with a car and required three visits in a 60-day period....they'd never buy from that company again....and they'd tell their neighbors far and wide of the experience.

I worked with an American a few years ago who had a five-year old Renault. About every six months...the car went into the shop for something. He liked the power. He liked the compact nature of the car. And he eventually got to know his neighborhood mechanic by his first name.

What surprised me is that BMW or Mercedes didn't take the top spot. Maybe they were just expecting "more" and actually got a five-star car instead.

So what should you take away from this survey of ADAC? It was made to measure your happiness with gas mileage, dependability, and general driving comfort....and some minor-league Japanese car won. I should add that there aren't that many Subaru dealers in Germany.....and their sales don't match up to any of the top six franchises. So they must be doing something right.

The Seat Discussion

2010-11-10T05:27:00.000+01:00

It's an interesting "slap". Germany and Japan woke up yesterday to her that President Obama was talking about the idea of getting India a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Both were peeved. So they'd both like President Obama to mention that they deserved a seat.

The problem with this permanent seat business...is that folks would rather not get into a big huff about this. You see....Brazil also thinks that it deserves a permanent seat. Indonesia also thinks that it deserves a seat. And South Africa thinks that it deserves a seat.

After a while, you kinda realize that the Security Council has it's limits and you can only spread the wealth around a certain amount. You have the five permanent seats and then the ten seats that keep flipping....so countries like Cuba, Tonga, and Liberia get a shot once in a while.

My guess is that the Germans will bring this up in conversation....just to needle President Obama, and they know they will never get a seat. The President will shift around in his seat and agree to say something and then says forty-four words to the effect that Germany has finally recovered from WW II....which will infuriate every single German....and then suggest they deserve a seat. Japan will observe the comment, and just let everything drop because it's best not to have that WW II comment ever get brought up in public forums.

So for you Germans....sit tight....you've got another fifty-odd years to go. By that point, the US will have the financial power of Tonga....and then you can make a pretty solid case of taking away their Security Council seat.

Starbucks Versus German Bakeries

2010-11-09T04:08:00.000+01:00

This is my own personal evaluation....coming from an American....and covering something that people often debate....morning coffee and 'treats'.

I will be honest....if this were a simple debate over just coffee....it would be a very close call with German bakeries likely winning. In most cases, when you walk into a German bakery....they have a premium coffee machine set up and whip up a cup within twenty seconds. With most shops....I'd rate the coffee between four-star and five-star.

Yes, there are exceptions. I can name a dozen German bakeries that I've walked into and found rather poor coffee served.

On the whole.....most shops don't serve lousy coffee, and you tend to pay for the premium cup that you get (don't worry....Starbucks would have charged the exact same amount).

Then comes the discussion over the croissant or the 'treat' that you will buy with the coffee. Bluntly.....after you've had a couple of German 'treats'....you really don't want to slide back over to donuts or rich glazed items. Yes, you give up a vast amount of sugar....and step back to something slightly more healthy in nature. Germans will brag about this but let's be honest....200 percent sugar glaze versus 100 percent sugar glaze.....is a bit of a difference.

So I'm giving traditional German bakeries an edge here. Course, if you wanted thirty-three different types of coffee....then Starbucks is it. If you want ice-coffee....it's Starbucks because German bakeries will never offer ice-coffee (it just hasn't done well with Germans).

How Should A German See Tuesday's Election

2010-11-07T14:39:00.003+01:00

By Wednesday night of last week....the Channel One & Two crowd needed to sit down and explain to the German public how President Obama and the Democrats lost. They didn't necessarily do this when the British government fell in the recent election (to those evil Tories), and they didn't do it when current French crowd took over. In fact, it's pretty hard to remember when they had to go and spend an hour or two explaining things.

You can imagine the chat...mostly bringing out pro-Obama folks and letting them explain on German public TV how the terrible thing occurred, and how racism is all part of this terrible business. Germans tend to consume bits and pieces of this type of program because they have an enormous amount of trust in Channel One & Two.

I sat and pondered over and finally decided to dish out the ten things that Germans ought to take out of Tuesday's election. Oh, and let me say this....I have no connection to Channel One or Two....so you can regard me as a threat to sanity, if you wish. Read far and wide....you might find that most of what I suggest is true, and that Channel One and Two ought to tell more of the story.

First, this was a non-Presidential election. It involved senators (one/third of the total group), representatives (all of them), governors, and various state and local offices. You can imagine up a national agenda here....but frankly, the President wasn't on the vote-list.

Second. Unemployment and the sluggish economy drove the vast portion of this election. If you wanted to inject racism into the vote....it'd be mostly at the bottom of one hundred reasons to vote like folks did.

Three. A small number of Republican senators didn't get the nod to run for their party. That might shock a German. But the truth of the matter is that a number of folks had spent a long time in DC....in their jobs....and folks thought that they were more of the problem, than the solution. It's a unusual feature of government representation.....either you are part of the solution...or you helped to cause the problem.

Four. The Tea Party movement? Yeah, it played a role in various states. Who makes up the movement? It's mostly disenchanted independent and Republican voters....and yes, thirteen percent of the Tea Party movement is Democrat. If that shocks you....maybe you ask if they are disenchanted with things going on with their own party, and the answer is yes. Is the Tea Party movement racist? It's about as racist as the CDU party in Germany....so that might make you ask more questions at this point. Disenchantment is what started the Tea Party movement, and it will continue until folks are happier.

Five. For the Germans who want to jump up for the idea of American universal health care....look around and note that well over sixty percent of Americans today question the bill that was passed and think that it needs to be "fixed". How many happy Democratic senators and representatives bragged about their work on the bill? Very few. You would think that folks would want to brag. Go and pick any of the candidates literature and note that less than ten percent bragged about their participation in the health care vote. It's kinda like engineering a new car and then not wanting to talk about how sloppy the work is or how bad the car is on the road.

Six. Lots of people came out in California to vote on the marijuana initiative. Yep....along with all the various Democrats and Republicans....they had a chance to legalize it. The vast number of votes in the state for various Democratic candidates went their direction. That was one of the few states with significant victories. Funny thing....most folks voted against the marijuana ballot. Even a fair number of Democrats voted against it.

Seven. A number of German journalists would like to say these voters in the Tuesday election....were "stupid". It's a pretty neat explanation.... worthy of a greatly educated individual to render. Wouldn't the same logic work for the 2008 Presidential election as well....that "stupid" voters rendered their vote in that election as well? Where exactly is the brilliance? The concept of only smart voters vote Democrat sounds pretty good....after five or six German beers. If you believe in this concept....I'd just suggest you start on the beers early, and agree that Frankfurt's soccer team is the best in Germany as well.

Eight. The positive spin of the President's speech ability has probably has probably maxed out. Most folks would readily agree that only three or four speeches out of the past twelve months might have been worth listening to....and the rest are mostly two-star moments better left forgotten. Speeches don't make a great leader, and in this election....they were simply another chapter to the disenchantment business.

Nine. The vast number of German economic experts have spoken out over the past eighteen months....and pretty much blasted the American strategy of recovery. Please note....the American plan had no pieces from the Republican party.....it was built strictly from the White House team. When German economic experts say things like this....you might want to think about why folks vote the way they do.

Ten. Everyone gets the continual dose from the German news folks that all of this mess came strictly from 2000 to 2008. It can work this way....because these were the Bush years. It's a neat strategy to lay out things in front of naive folks....and just hope they don't read up on the banks and the mortgage business. My advice...read up. You might be surprised. The start of this entire business goes back to the Carter years, and grows a bit through each administration. Yes, Reagan and his Democratic players helped in the 1980s. Yes, Clinton and his Republican house associates helped in the 1990s. Yes, Bush and the entire house and senate helped from 2000 to 2008. This has been a avalanche in the making for almost thirty years. So when the news analyst on Channel One suggests Bush did it....ask them how the housing act business started during the Carter years and watch this funny expression on his face. He didn't get those facts from the Spiegel article he was reading....to get smart over this entire mess. And it shows.

So, at the end of the day....here is the picture. One part of the US government shifted. The House of Representatives will be run by the Republicans. The Senate still has a majority of Democrats, with two independents. And the Presidency is still intact. I realize the Channel One folks indicated that everything is screwed up now....and it can only be if you think the Senate and the Presidency are screwed up as well. Naturally, that's not the script that the Channel One guy wants to read.

2011 has to be a year of change and hope for Americans. If the economy doesn't improve....disenchantment will continue on. If the government size isn't cut or taxes lessened....then 2012's election will be a major problem for the President to explain. My analysis? Well...two Channel One guys are already sitting at their desks each evening and wondering how they might explain how President Obama lost the November 2012 re-election, and make the evil Republicans look even more evil. Oh, and the voters in 2012? They were "stupid". Yep, that will work.

These Kids

2010-11-07T11:36:00.003+01:00

This is what we know. This German kid (he's nineteen but in my book, he's still a kid) arrived in the US back in August. His name? Christopher Mettin. He was apparently one of those Germans who really didn't want to be a German anymore. He had an American girlfriend....and somehow with her help....he ended up with a fake driver's license and fake birth certificate. Then in a moment of brilliance after arriving, he tossed away his German passport. He was going to live the American dream....completely.

He even set up a Facebook account as part of this American dream episode.

So he was going to be registered at a small Methodist university in Iowa. I kinda have these doubts about his background as a Methodist but it's best not to question that. Someone along the way convinced him in September that it was ok if he wanted to vote in the November elections....and so he went and got registered to vote. The girlfriend? Yeah, maybe....but we'll probably never know who suggested this part of the deal.

The county got onto his citizenship by mid-October, and he got indicted on 21 October. The court business will occur in January. The potential punishment? If you count the fraud on entering the country, the fraud on the University, and the fraud on the country while registering to vote....it gets to be complicated. Max fine is $500,000 and max prison time is eight years in a prison. The Feds are also involved in this mess now because he entered on a fraudulent educational visa. I would also suspect they know his hobbies list from Germany (he did enjoy hacking a bit).

The curious part about this story involves this Methodist college that he was going to attend when he arrived.....Morningside College. It's a small operation...outside of Sioux City. They might get up to two thousand students in a successful year. It's a private operation and run by the Methodist Church. As this kid started his fall semester in August....he didn't make it past six weeks when the university stepped in and dismissed him on 6 October. The university won't say why....but I suspect the fake birth certificate and fake license are part of their reason. So his educational visa to stay in the US....is now terminated. You only have a certain number of days to assemble your stuff, and leave.

Within a week, this story will be picked up by the German press. I'm guessing that the kid will become a household name and Germans will be incensed at the fact that he's still being held in a jail (at least as of yesterday). They will insist that the dimwits at the registration point should have stopped and asked for a passport card (like any German registration office would do) and the kid would never have been allowed to register in the first place.

My advice for the court system in Iowa....to avoid some really bad German press....is to bring the kid in, and fine him for $100 and give him two months in jail, and then toss him on the next airplane back to Germany. Course, you can imagine this moment when the US girlfriend announces that she's now married him (in some brief moment in the court) and then the whole mess goes into some weird international episode.

And the really sad thing? If no one had caught on...he would have likely voted, and I'm guessing it would have been another Democratic vote. Even off his Facebook account.....he indicates he kinda leans that way. These days....you just can't get enough Democratic votes.

Oh, and if you Google enough.....you will come to realize that this German kid is a hacker, but it's best not to bring up that part of the story...it only makes the US authorities work twice as hard to dump him back into Germany.

Comparisons to Mexico

2010-11-06T03:51:00.000+01:00

This week....there's been a fair amount of discussion over the US economic strategy that suddenly popped up....the purchase of $600 billion worth of US bonds by the Federal Reserve Bank.

The Germans came out today (Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble at the top).....with mostly all negative comments. In a blunt fashion....none of this makes any sense.

The expectation? I went through a dozen articles from major international financial pages. Almost all predicted the US currency relationship to sink further than what exists today. In effect, the US is working toward Mexico-status on the world market. You want cheap steel...you come to the US. You want cheap cars....you come to the US. You want cheap vacations....you come to the US. You want cheap retirement.....you come to the US.

The current exchange rate would best be classified as "lousy". There was this short period after the 2008 election where the dollar started to improve....going back to levels of 2002. But that was brief and barely remembered today.

For Germans, an even cheaper dollar would create a number of scenarios. Folks might envision retirement, and toss their Euro accounts into dollars....moving to Texas and living a great life off what was supposed to be a 2-star retirement deal in Germany.

A German might take their 1,000 Euro and suddenly find a great vacation possibility in Arizona.

A German might find investment property in the US to buy, and sink lots of his Euro into various deals.

So there's a reason why Germans are suspicious over this US strategy. It doesn't help the German government in any fashion. And it makes the US look more like Mexico...than the US.

The Elite Game of Spiegel

2010-11-04T23:12:00.004+01:00

Is the American dream over?

This is the newest Spiegel title for it's slam on the US. For anyone who has kind of sat around and viewed Spiegel over the past two decades....you might note in almost every edition, there is a article that tries to cast a long shadow over the US, it's business structure, it's political structure, it's education system, it's medical structure, it's agricultural sector, and it's beers (we might not argue with that analysis).

The truth is....if any dedicated Spiegel journalist was given a task to write up the mandatory Spiegel slam on the US and they actually said something positive....I suspect they'd be fired or sent to write Bavarian agricultural articles in the future.

The simple truth is that Spiegel has an enormous task. It must render judgement....ever constant...over the US. This judgement must be in a fashion that only a educated German could deliver. The problem with America? It simply isn't capable of running its government, it's society, or it's culture.

It's kind of like reading a blitz of articles on the Green Bay Packers on a Monday after their big win or their big loss. There will be forty national sports writers who dwell on the quarterback situation, the team's dismal draft choices, or the way that the coach ran the game. Everyone will read the articles and be this secondary individual sitting in a LazyBoy recliner admiring their expert and his precise wording of how things worked terribly and the team should improve....even if they won.

Who reads Spiegel? This is the fascinating thing about the magazine. Walk through a German village and ask the butcher if he reads it....and the answer will be no. Ask the car mechanic....and he'll say no. Ask the plumber....and he'll say no.

Spiegel is typically read by well educated Germans....who naturally attended university and are quite bright. They will always let you know that as well. They will quote from Spiegel...like some religious folks would quote from Bible. Typically, you can ask them questions which Spiegel didn't cover....they freak out that you know something that went beyond Spiegel's gifted writers.

Should you worry about these anti-American slams by Spiegel? No. It's actually worth reading a couple of paragraphs of the article so you kinda wonder on the things missing from the text. It's like looking at a black & white version of the Mona Lisa....with some wonderful grays mingled into the picture....then remembering that a dozen other colors would fill out the entire picture and really make it complete.

Now, certainly....I don't want to insult the Spiegel folks because this is really the only 4-star magazine that gifted and educated Germans read. Otherwise, they might start picking up the Bild or the London Telegraph....and that'd be a bad thing.

So, for you Spiegel folks....keep up the fine work. If you notice....we haven't exactly fallen over ourselves because of your comments. In fact, if you wanted to take them up a notch....why not draft up an anti-American article on NASCAR, NCAA football, Delta airline attendants, septic tanks, or Johnny Cash? I suspect your readers would like some fresh criticism of America because you keep talking over the same general sixteen topics.

And the American dream? Well....it's a funny thing....some Germans pack up every year, and go for the American dream....even living in Texas and driving a eight-cylinder pick-up. Heck, some Germans (like Konny Reimann) get so successful in Texas, that they become a legend back home in Germany...then they start to sell their own salsa version....and start speaking German with a Texas accent. Don't know why they'd do a crazy thing like that....especially in a failed country....like you guys say.

Be Nice!

2010-11-04T11:10:00.000+01:00

German politicians got together and decided that they wanted a civil place to operate. So they've invented these rules to be used in the Bundestag....and if you were doing something stupid or insulting someone....you could face up to 3,000 Euro in fines (roughly $4000).

It's a curious thing. They've had some far left-wing folks appear in the Bundestag lately....protesting about the German troops in Afghanistan. They wore t-shirts while on the floor, and even held protest signs about the war involvement.

Interestingly enough....both CDU and SPD members are agreed that the fine was necessary. It hasn't passed yet....but it appears to have enough votes to make it happen. This is supposed to "fix" the Bundestag.

I paused and thought about this. It renders freedom of speech a bit of a blow. You can't wear a t-shirt into the Bundestag with anti-whatever slogans. You'd have to dress right, talk right, and behave right.

The more I thought about it....it'd be nice to have that kind of rule in the US congress and senate. No more insulting and no crazy antics. Course, we Americans would never go this far.

I suspect that someone will challenge this immediately and then spend two years running via the German court system to prove that they have the right to still do stupid things. My guess is that the court might agree with them. Then the next day....all of the nicely behaved Germans would show up in a t-shirt that had some Nazi symbol to demonstrate to the court that rules might be necessary. That's typically the way that folks make a point in Germany.

The Blur in Germany

2010-11-03T08:47:00.001+01:00

Google launched it's street view section of Germany yesterday. The curious thing is that houses which the owner wanted "out" of Google....got that privilege but they still are in the shot....just blurred drastically.

You can imagine a German guy....happy because he opt'ed out, and today viewing the street.....seeing all his neighbors clearly, and his house is totally blurred. What a number of Germans were thinking was that nothing from the house would be in the picture. And now? A massive blur?

It is comical in a way. Germans often have this view of things and how they will work out. In this case....I'm thinking alot of folks will be upset and disappointed over what happened to the idea of privacy. They end up with a blur representation.

You can imagine Huns coming over from across the street. His house is clear and crisp. He wants to ask how come your house is so fuzzy. You answer is that you opt'ed out. Huns will stand there and drag this topic around, over and over. Eventually, you will go back in the house and spend weeks mad and upset over the image of your house. I suspect most home owners will now regret this decision.

Google probably took the appropriate measure. A measured amount of blur, and then folks start to rethink their wisdom in accepting a blur. Most folks just won't be able to handle the blur.

Comical in a way....if you think about this. If you could just find an entire street of Germans who opt'ed out....and you could refer to it as "blur strasse". That might stick with the neighborhood kids.

Two Different Jews

2010-11-02T09:29:00.000+01:00

There's an interesting German article over at the London Telegraph today.

It may be a shocker to some....but Germany has quietly been funding a Jewisih rabbi training deal for a number of years. This topic comes up because the Germans did a bit of thinking....and found that there are different kinds of Jews (yes, shocking, isn't it?).

They've discovered that the old fashioned type of Jew....the Orthodox type.....were just too difficult to get along with. And those liberal rabbis, were the right variety that Germans could get along with. Thus, the liberal rabbi training areas are the ones that get funded by the German government now.

For most Germans, no one really cares. They are funding Islamic funding in German universities now, so why say anything critical about this topic?

I looked at the amount....over six million Euro ($7.5 dollars) and it's not a major sum of money anyway (compared to American stimulus values, you have to understand). This money goes to support the 120,000 Jews left in Germany today.

This is a topic that I never thought much about. You would think that most Jews would be anti-German anyway, but apparently this rebuilding effort within Germany is underway. As for the different labels to attach to Jews? The article suggests that the liberal Jewish crowd don't run around bringing up past history. So I could understand why Germans of 2010 kinda like that mentality....and hate the continual mention from the Orthodox Jews about the 1930s.

Let's be honest, it's Germany's money....and if they wanted to fund clown schools in Saarbrucken....they'd do it. They can pick the liberal guys over the Orthodox guys, and never feel bad about it. The only folks who ever feel bad about funding anything? The taxpayer. And they aren't allowed to speak in any case.

The Brake-pad Grant

2010-11-01T07:46:00.000+01:00

I noticed an interesting story today.....involving the Bahn (Germany's train company).

The German government is going to provide a grant of 7.5 million Euro (roughly ten million dollars) to put low-noise brakes on freight cars. For a number of years...passenger cars had the feature already, but the Bahn had been kinda cheap and just kept waiting.

It's true, they were likely waiting for a government grant or hand-out....but they waited long enough that people had complained in small towns and villages over the freight cars that came through and made too much noise.

The truth is that if you lived within 500 feet and some freight train came through and hit their brakes....you could hear it easily. People could tell the difference between passenger and freight trains. I'm guessing by the end of 2011....you won't be able to tell the difference, and a number of folks will toss out a negative opinion of the Bahn.

But don't worry....they've still got at least a dozen complaints to lodge with Bahn trains or operations.

Bahn Story

2010-10-30T12:41:00.003+02:00

I read through an interesting story this morning....having to do with one of top ten favorite German topics....the Bahn (the train system of Germany).

This had to do with the German government coming up to the Bahn.....and telling them that they were awful worried about the Bahn's operations if a natural disaster or terrorist attack took place and destroyed key operations posts of the Bahn. Naturally, the answer to this worry....is to force the Bahn to build 40 underground crisis centers in locations around Germany.

Bild wrote the story, and the Local put it out for distribution as well.

I pondered upon this for a while. There are several observations.

First, I could understand one or two alternate and hidden command posts being built in a central location in Germany. But forty? This is overkill, if you ask me.

Second, this is all geared toward a massive destructive scenario....which for the life of me....I cannot imagine total devastation like this occurring, and if it did.....would the Bahn operations situation even be in our top ten priorities?

Third, German politicians have this neat method of handing out favors to construction companies, which bid significantly more on contracts because they toss the extra money back at candidates or the parties. This Bahn-suggested project has a funny smell like that. My guess is that they'd neatly fold this into one overall project, and have only one company bid on it. There are likely only two major construction companies in all of Germany that could take on a project like this.

So as you gaze at your train pulling into the station tomorrow, be confident that the German government is working hard to ensure it runs even in total chaos...even if you aren't around to enjoy this fact.

Germany and Homelessness

2010-10-29T04:46:00.000+02:00

Several years ago...I had someone I worked with who commented that homelessness in Germany was almost non-existent. I kinda laughed and suggested they go to a real metropolitan town (some place other than Kaiserslautern).

There is this truth over homelessness in Germany. There are degrees, which you eventually realize and feel amazed about.

The first group of homelessness is really the Harz IV crowd, on welfare. The German state is sponsoring the welfare cases and give these people ample breathing room to rent an apartment. There's no great lifestyle, but you could survive and plot your recovery in life. You avoid living on the street, and you have a basic home that you can call your own.

The next degree? Mostly drug addicts who hang around bahnhofs in major towns. For some reason, at least through my observation, train stations end up being this magnet. The dopers rip off folks or get the money they need....and they find some kind of support structure within a couple of blocks of every major train station in Germany.

The teen degree? Over the past decade....this new trend started. Some fifteen-year old kid will look for extreme viewpoints and find no support at school....then find these great kids to hang out with. They drink excessively on cheap booze, and eventually just leave home to camp out on some wooded area of city property. The parents can't get the state to do anything. The city just accepts this band of merry men and women....mostly all between fifteen and twenty-five. Increasing? Yes. There are more and more each year. Dying early? Yes, between alcohol problems and drug usage....there's a pretty high death level for these kids after five years of this homelessness game.

What you tend to notice after a while...is that people on rough times and trying to be homelessness in their town where they grew up....won't work. Relatives get into their business and the guy or gal has to move onto some place where no one knows them. So a guy ends up moving to a bigger area....usually a town of twenty thousand or more. Then guys tend to notice that smaller towns don't offer all the soap kitchens of the major towns.....so they move (like a magnet) to the bigger cities.

The mentality unstable folks? If the cops come to finally get serious and apprehend a guy....it's left to a doctor and judge to determine if he's capable of handling life. At that point, your freedom just might be finished as you spend the remainder of your life in a facility (not a prison, but certainly not a open free place where you can leave if you want).

Germany has homelessness, but you have to look at it from an angle. The society wants to help them...but you have to stand up and accept it.

Political Events in Germany

2010-10-29T04:26:00.000+02:00

There are two interesting two political stories today out of Germany.

First, a vote came up in the Bundestag today...which went mostly along party lines, and the topic was over the extension of nuclear power. There was this 'dream' by the Greens and their period of power from the last SPD-run government where all nuclear power stations were going to be allowed to come to the end of the twenty-year life span...and then no extensions. Normally...you could apply for some upgrades, and then get another twenty-year permit.

The vote came to a bitter end result....Merkel's government kept a open policy and nuclear stations could continue on, with no end at twenty years. The extension period was now possible, if you pass the stringent requirements. And this extension runs for only a max of fourteen years.

Naturally, the Greens are terribly upset, and most of the SPD members were at least dissatisfied over the final result.

Here's the problem to this entire topic. There is "X" amount of power being generated right now. The wind energy business is moving along on a upward trend, but you have to have back-up power standing by and ready to go if the winds suddenly decrease. The source of this back-up? The Greens will typically grin and just admit they know....but they can't tell you.

The growing solar 'punch' of power projected in ten to fifteen years? This might eventually take up fifty percent of the power needs of Germany...but this is a twenty-year dream. You have to remember that this will have to tunnel it's way across northern Africa, and this hook-up has not exactly been fully explained.

The other back-up? Your friends in France, Poland, the Ukraine, and Russia....and their nuclear power establishment. Again, if you ask the Greens....they simply grin and just avoid a discussion over this angle of the topic. It's best to never admit that buying nuke power from your neighbors is ok, while from a Germany nuke company is bad.

The second big political story of the day....this debate in Stuttgart over the '21-project' (this massive project to rebuild all subway lines leading into Stuttgart and to build three train stations in the city to support their future requirements).

If you paid attention over the past month.....the protest against this massive public-works program started at a massive scale and still moves along but perhaps with a slightly lesser volume.

Today, the SPD stood up in the Baden-Wurttemberg region's parliament stood up and had a vote on this idea that had been tossed around by the protest movement. They actually want a referendum put to public vote and just let the public sink or support the project. So for a month or so....folks thought this would be the way to end this mess and proceed forward.

The region's representatives had a debate....voted on the SPD-supported measure...with all of the CDU and FDP members voting against it, and carrying the weight of the day against the referendum measure.

It was a curious thing. The Greens abstained. Yes, they just avoided the vote entirely.

I sat for a while and thought about this moment of abstaining. I suspect that Greens have polled the local population and realize now that a referendum would not fall into place and people wouldn't vote in their favor with 50.1 percent or better. To have the referendum out there, and probably voted on within two months....then going against you....was considered a bad idea.

I would suspect that around sixty percent of the local public would have gone to support the '21-project' which might say something over the opposition's dynamics.

So the anti-21 crowd has some open space now....no referendum exists and you can whine daily over the terrible construction program and the mess on their front-door step. It was a positive move by the Greens to oppose the idea.

Two major political stories from Germany....and both run against the Greens in some fashion.

Ryanair and Its Fists of Rage

2010-10-28T17:44:00.001+02:00

A number of years ago....a buddy of mine was telling me about this low-budget airline deal that you could fly to Italy or London for $30. I laughed and asked if this was a Russian aircraft from the 1950s. Then he laid out how Ryanair works.

As time went by.....I started to use Ryanair. There are pluses and minuses. They are fairly cheap on some tickets. If you plan three months ahead of time....you could get a one-way ticket to Rome for $20. There are times that you try, and find the same ticket bought three weeks before the trip, because of the days selected....costs $150 one-way.

The main port for Ryanair in Germany? Hahn, which is the old military base about forty minutes driving west of Frankfurt. There is fairly cheap parking, and they tend to run on time. The problems? Well....Hahn feels like a big bus station. Drinks cost money. And they only go to thirty odd places out of Hahn....mostly smaller airports in the middle of nowhere. But if you wanted a trip to Ireland....to Shannon perhaps (which is a smaller airport), then $40 one-way makes sense.

For months, the German government has been hinting of a new tax. This week....that hint came out. They'd like to tax all flights leaving Germany to a tune of eight to forty-five Euro ($10 to $60). The idea of a $20 ticket? Pretty much gone.

So Ryanair came out today, and hinted on its own....even with solid sales....they are cutting nine routes from Hahn in 2011. This is all in response to the tax hinted.

Impact?

You can figure half-a-million less passengers out of Hahn over the course of a year....and via the airport and local area....there might be a couple hundred less employed folks (this counts the airport cleaners, the bartenders, the local McDonalds, etc).

I imagine that the tax will take place....without any hesitation by the government in their actions.....and two dozen operations and support personnel will be let go by the end of April 2012.

It's a curious tactic. You have good sales. You have Germans interested in cheap trips. You have a market for Americans in central Germany. You have a brand-name that has built up a reputation. And now....even in a great market period....you find a carrier willing to fight the government.

By the end of 2012....the government and the airport management crew will have a meeting, and ask how they can improve sales and get more passengers via the airport. Some guy in the back of the room will suggest a tax cut. Naturally, everyone will smile and the chief of the government side will say "nein"....but then they will all get into agreement that this 2012 tax hike was stupid. Eventually....by the end of 2013....they will finally agree that Ryanair had a point, and dump the tax.

Ryanair then walks in and ask for more incentive. Just a silly cut of the new tax won't be enough. They want rent from the airport cut, or some new government grant to improve the airport. Everyone will be shocked at the attitude of the Irish in dealing this way. Eventually, Ryanair will return to full strength.

Oh, if you were wondering if the cuts equaled a boost elsewhere....Ryanair already hinted that. I suspect that Luxembourg and somewhere along the border of Germany & Denmark....there will be something worked out....just outside of the German tax guy's reach.

Marriage Stumble

2010-10-28T00:54:00.020+02:00

I was kinda surprised today....Germany admitted that it was forging ahead and criminalizing forced marriage. In Alabama (where I grew up)....forced marriage kind of meant that some local boy was real stupid....got some girl pregnant, and her dad shows up with a baseball bat to indicate you would marry her (to make the situation right). Everyone went along with this....even though everyone knew they'd be divorced within five years. Yeah, we can admit it was stupid.

In this case, there is a fairly different scenario to view. Forced marriages in Germany fit strictly into Muslim family situations. You have some 16-year old girl who starts to look like a "problem". The problem typically means that she's very liberal....anti-family....not cooperating with traditions of a typical Muslim family....and she needs intervention.

This intervention means that some cousins go out and find an older true-to-Islam guy and he's brought in to meet Dad to work out the arrangement. Days later, Dad has a meeting with the daughter and lets her know that he's pick her husband, and it might be six months away or six days away.

The daughter typically freaks out. She never expected Dad to be this crazy. She talks to Mom....which does nothing for her case. She talks to her cousin, who insists this is for her own good. And then she has the last option of just trying to escape from the family.

Over the past ten years....there's dozens of episodes where young girls were forced to marry, or ran off to be found by the family later and beaten (in some cases, murdered by the family).

The government says that if convicted of a forced marriage (both Mother and Father) could end up with five years. I'm guessing if kids are still left in the house....the DA would likely go for a full five year period for Dad, and maybe let Mom off with almost nothing.

This is an interesting mess. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s....there weren't many of these forced marriage episodes. In some ways, this mess comes up now because of increased Islamic peer pressure and more Mosques in existence than thirty years ago. If some local guy thinks Musaff has gotten disrespect from his daughter....he'll make it a group topic and force Musaff into some reactionary phase that normally he would have never done.

In some ways....it's an integration problem. People have their old perceptions in abundance, and need some fresh peer pressure that isn't of a Muslim variety.

I sat and pondered over this. It's kinda funny when compared against Germans. Here we have a vast number of German women.....some into their forties and fifties....still single, and Dad (Huns is now seventy years old) wished he had "forced" Dora to marry that punk idiot Dieter down the street back in 1988.

To be kinda honest, there's this vast problem of Germans 'waiting' for long and extended periods....before ever marrying. You could have some healthy, highly educated, fit, lusty German gal standing there at age thirty-three, and really wishing something would happen. Maybe some Prince Charming character from a foreign land (maybe Boaz, Alabama) or Italy walks up and she decides she'll overlook twenty of his serious faults and just accept the fool.

So, this is an interesting slice of German life to compare against a non-integrated German life. One needs some help, and the other has to be threaten with five years in prison if they do anything stupid involving marriage.

Familie Krause

2010-10-27T11:20:00.006+02:00

Once in a while, I will blog on German TV. Today's topic? Hausmeister Krause.

It's best to describe this show as Germany's Married With Children, on turbo. You've got Dieter who is the hausmeister, who runs the apartment building and is one of those guys without any real skills. He basically runs from one problem to another. His lovely wife, daughter, and son are at the heart of his issues throughout the day.

Watch the background, the apartment, the clothing style, and the wallpaper....it's all done in 1980's style and typically makes you think the family is a decade or two behind the times. This is a Sat-1 show, and I'd have to rate it in the top ten comedies on German TV (at least over the past two decades).

If you pay attention...the son is played by Axel Stein, who tries his best to play the typical German teenager who is over-sexed and in need of more pocket money.

Legends Fall Hard

2010-10-27T03:03:00.002+02:00

There's one way to draw the ire of a German sports enthusiast....talk down on the 1954 World Cup victory by Germany.

This is the Holy Grail for most Germans. This 3-2 victory was a mass turning point that really spun Germany into an positive attitude for the next ten years.

Any negative talk over the team or their accomplishment....usually turns you into an immediate target.

Today...we finally had a researcher who came along and suggested that the players in the 1954 World Cup...were injected with a stimulant (invented from WW II). It's original purpose was for pilots, but made it's way down to tank crews by the end of the war. The drug name? Pervitin. But you'd know it by methamphetamine.

It's a drug that typically you'd use for increasing your attention and give you a higher rate of aggression. In rationed doses, and under a controlled atmosphere, it might be ok.

Doping in 1954? I'm guessing this story will not make the German public happy. It is a theory right now...mostly because there are no urine samples around that you could test. Proving this to be a fact will be next to impossible.

A historical need to stage this investigation and publish? This is the hard part to survey. I'm guessing that ninety-nine percent of the German population would prefer this kind of thing never gets investigated. Folks will sit around the pubs this weekend....discussing this....and feel kinda upset. Their legend has been messed with, and they can't readily fight the story.

Riding the Rails

2010-10-26T12:39:00.000+02:00

The Stuttgart 21 rail mess goes into the next interesting episode today. Since a bunch of folks are so much against the renovation rail project....which goes into the billions...it just makes sense to spread the anxiety as far as possible.

So the demonstration team is on a chartered train to Berlin today.....for a nifty day of protesting in the capital. The ideal is to bring their problem to a national focus. There's six hundred folks on this train bound for Berlin.

The neat thing about this train-load (600 folks) bound for Berlin, to protest the new train station and lines for Stuttgart....is that they will arrive at the new nifty bahnhof in Berlin.

Yes, as you gaze at the picture....this is a great modern train station that the protest team will exit their train from....and begin this all-day protest. Then they will all run back to the nifty new bahnhof...probably have a beer and a slice of pizza at the nifty new bahnhof before they jump back on the train and head back to Stuttgart.

I would imagine that a couple dozen protesters will stand there and admire the Berlin train station....ultra modern in nature, and wonder why they can't have a train station like this in Stuttgart. But then the head of the group will grab these weak-minded folks....slap them around....and bring them back to their senses. Old train stations are safe, stable and easy to protest for.

The gang will sit on the train bound for Stuttgart tonight...sipping beer....and wondering where exactly Berlin went wrong in getting a ultra-modern train-station, and how they might learn from this. More beer will be required, and eventually shots of schnapps to help them find peace of mind.

By Wednesday morning....they will exit in Stuttgart and stumble their way home....thinking about the failures of the Berlin ultra-modern train-station. It'll make sense....in some crazy mixed-up way.

Integration Spin

2010-10-26T03:10:00.004+02:00

I stopped and pondered this news item from Germany today. The German integration commissioner....yes, they do have one....Maria Böhmer....stood up and said that the German government ought to have a Integration Ministry.

This is an odd situation to view. Typically....when people arrive on your shores, they have this dream of getting into your system....being part of your success....getting a boost up via your economic system.....and melding into your society.

You go to America in the 1800s, and people wanted to be part of the "dream". You go and look at immigrants in Canada over the past hundred years, and it's the same. You go and look at Australia over the past hundred years....and it's the same. Yet, we have Germany with this odd problem where people came for something but no one is sure about why they came...and integration wasn't in their top three priorities. You'd like to ask what is in the top three....but you'd just intimidate them and make them feel uncomfortable.

So, the answer here? You spend tens of millions of Euro, to create an entire ministry? You start with 500 staff members who walk around and talk integration daily? You buy twenty Audi A8 staff cars to get these integration chiefs from meeting to meeting? You pay some graphic arts company 40k Euro to create a integration symbol so you can walk proudly onto any TV show? And then you spread out to have integration offices in every state, then every county, and then every city?

Sitting at some Gasthaus tonight in the heartland of Germany are Huns and Franz. The boys sit there and chat over the events of the day. They've had two beers and are nursing through the positive economic trend, the latest antics of national soccer teams, and then they come to this topic of integration.

Huns scratches his head and wonders how exactly a national office will change things. Franz will respond that the Hartz IV office does help welfare recipients. Huns will counter that a jobs office would be enough to help most of the welfare recipients. They will argue back and forth for an hour.

Finally, Musaff the local Turk walks in and orders a beer. Huns and Franz asks Musaff what he thinks of this integration office idea. Musaff thinks for a minute and offers a simple analysis: the worst punishment for any German is to spend ninety minutes on a Sunday evening political chat show listening to some German ministry guy sparkle and shine over some fancy policy change. Musaff smiles, and then says....if you don't integrate, then you'd don't learn the language, and then you won't understand a word from the idiot from the integration ministry. You can sleep well at night by claiming non-integration and the only one all bent out of shape from Sunday night political chat antics, will be the German idiots listening.....who don't worry about integration anyway.

Huns and Franz finally realize the brilliance of this. The next day, they both enroll in a Turkish language class and work hard to non-integrate themselves. After five years, their blood pressure is lower, their lives are simpler, and they both are happy as non-integrated Germans....in the German heartland.

The Hunsruck

2010-10-25T05:05:00.001+02:00

It's best to describe the Hunsruck as a region, instead of a state forest of Germany. The true state forest....is around 50 miles by 100 miles....and probably one of the most scenic areas of Germany in the fall. If you go for the greater region...you kinda become surprised over scenic small towns that exist.

The Hunsruck rubs up against Luxembourg. There used to be three significant American Air Force installations in the region....now down to one.

The key thing is the Mosel River which runs along the region. There is a major wine region along the river, which make it world-famous.

Amount of time to spend? No more than a day. Pick a decent restaurant and make sure you get some of the local grub.

Good Times

2010-10-25T04:46:00.000+02:00

The DAX, which is the German Wall Street measurement....is finally back up to where it was in the summer of 2008....and you would speculate that things look awful good. The word "soaring" might actually be used in your description.

German concrete companies are moving up, indicating construction. German car companies are moving up, indicating private owners are buying their cars. The list goes on and on: food, oil, trucking, etc, etc.

On the positive side, these numbers all relate to higher employment, more tax revenue coming in, and a positive moment for younger workers when they look at the future. Some folks chat like it's the 1960s all over again.

The key here? Merkel guessed right on the measures to take....tossing as little in government stimulus as possible during 2009. There's no basket of debt to hand off to another generation, so they can get onto the next part of their lives without worrying on the future.

The Good Immigrant

2010-10-24T04:05:00.000+02:00

Immigration is one of those topics in Germany....that usually draws a blank stare and a desire to argue from your typical German. Most Germans know there's this problem. The German population is decreasing. German companies need more employees. It's a problem which never goes away.

So you reach a point where you'd like to ask Germans who can be the immigrant. The answer usually starts with a very long pause.

Turks are capable people and have been in the country on work visas and permanent immigration since the 1960s. Up until the last decade when this jihad business and Muslim discussion came up.....there wasn't a big argument against Turks. Today, so many communities are seeing a Mosque being built, and their Turkish neighbors suddenly become very dedicated to Islam....that it bothers them.

Greeks? Well...they usually rank better than Turks but then you have work differences (note, I didn't say they were lazy....it's just that Germans tend to use words that might translate into lazy).

Russians? Well....you come to the White Russian topic where these former Germans (from the hundreds of years ago) desire to come back to Germany. In the beginning....this was acceptable but then Russian Mafia issues popped up. Then you had the jokes about every Russian carrying a knife (which might be true, but it's best not to ask them).

Poles? Germans have this 1,000 year opinion about Poles. It's like a guy from southern parts of America talking about his cousin, who just isn't as smart as he is or married into the right way as he is. Poles tend work in the black alot (meaning they work for cash and on weekends....to avoid taxes).

Danes? They get favorable mentions but frankly, Danes don't move to Germany, period. In fact, Danes don't move anywhere unless it's mandatory or for a hot spouse.

The British? No. Don't even bring up the topic.

The French? Both the Germans and the French insult each other on a daily basis. So you won't see any French immigrating.

The Chinese? There is this uneasy growth of German-Chinese relations. It's like two very sophisticated societies meeting and discussing their future....and realizing that neither really fits well in the other's environment. I would imagine that China would love to send 40,000 smart and gifted Chinese professionals to Germany every year. Course, 39,999 would be trained in spying on industry projects, and one Chinese guy would end up on TV as a smiling evening commentator for Channel One.

Italians? Italians hate rigid society situations.....which Germans absolutely demand. This is a marriage made in hell.

Then, I came to this one unique group....Americans. It would be an unusual comedy of sorts....Germany offering immigration options for 50,000 Americans a year? Would Americans even come to Germany? Would Germans accept the idea of possible conservative Americans arriving and changing their society into a less liberal country?

I pondered upon this radical idea. First, you'd have to attract the Americans....with steady jobs.....dependable pensions.....a good economy.....public infrastructure....and a lifestyle change beyond anything they'd ever dreamed of.

A jet arriving every two days with two hundred Americans? A four-week orientation course in local areas...indoctrinating the poor Americans into German habits. Teaching the Americans to recycle and act German in public?

It's a radical idea. I suspect that Germans might actually prefer these pitiful Americans over just about all other ethic groups. Germans perceive Americans often being naive. They haven't had the right education. They haven't had the right explanations to things in life. Americans were never given chances to acquire culture....like Germans. So now....in this unique German situation....maybe the poor Americans could finally assimilate (yes, kinda like the Borg). It would take patience and lots of effort on the poor American, but yes, he could become German.

I suspect....somewhere in the basement offices of the German government in Berlin....there is this plan underway. Attract 40,000 Americans into arriving on the shores of Germany, and become the better immigration partner.

Americans will laugh over this ad. They will comment on the radical move to their friends and relatives....but somewhere in Iowa and New Jersey....there will be these people who have an interest in doing something radical. And they move to Germany. Radical, I agree.....but it's the German thought process.

Germans and Google

2010-10-22T05:58:00.002+02:00

Today, Google's big moment in Germany occurred. The German government had demanded the right for people to opt out of having their houses shown on Google's Street View.

The number? Folks from 245,000 buildings were noted as "no view". Statistically....because I enjoy this game....it's less than three percent of the national home number. Yes....less than three percent.

You walk into a village of 300 homes and can figure that nine homes out there are forbidden from Google view. That's really not much of a big deal.

It would have been interesting to know where exactly these homes were located...course, I doubt that Google or the German government would like to admit this. My prediction is that the 'opt-out' crew came mostly from urban areas (Frankfrut, Koln, etc), and few if any were in rural environments or small towns of 500 people.

For the privacy folks and the political dimwits...it's a win-lose situation. They won in terms of getting this as a requirement and forcing Google to the table. But when you consider that the number is less than three percent of all homes in Germany....then it was a lousy topic to discuss and probably make into a national topic.

The bottom line? Around 250k home-owners are sleeping safely tonight. They've protected their privacy and their home from public view. Oh, yes...it's true that Huns, the guy in the gray house, can see them daily and comments greatly about the lousy flowers. That old gal in the green house can see the house and comment on car having an oil leak....hour-by-hour.....if you give her a chance.

The thing here is 'safety'. Germans feel it. They went against Google, and protected themselves. Life will feel much better tomorrow....well....up until the next enemy confronts them. In a way, Germans live like Hansel and Gretal. Its sad if you think about it.

The Trouble with German Education

2010-10-21T02:57:00.000+02:00

It's an odd change to the German government (at least they promise this change). The Education Ministry says now that they will modify laws to recognize degrees and skills that 300k current foreigners in Germany have. It's a promise....you have to remember. It hasn't happened yet.

For an eternity, Germans have looked at educations gained outside of Germany as being 'lesser' than what a German has. If you studied at Moscow and have a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering....it means nothing currently within Germany. You'd end up as a electrician's helper....at best.

The same is true for a chemistry expert from UCLA, with a Masters Degree in Chemistry. You could be a consultant, but nothing more than that. You certainly couldn't teach or be head of a project in a German company.

This was the accepted way of life for all these years.

On the books currently, Germany admits they are short on 400k skilled workers. This move by the Education Ministry would help to fix the problem.

I wrote a blog about two years ago of a US professor who had come to work on a project at a German company....and had the cops come to his door. He'd handed out business cards, with the "diploma-status" mentioned on the card. Someone in the company had taken offense to this claim and called the cops. Naturally, there's a law against this. You can't claim this status in Germany...unless it's a German diploma. The cops didn't really want to mess with the guy, and simply told him to dump the cards to avoid trouble. He kinda sat there in shock that a bunch of idiots would behave like this, and think they were more special than anyone else.

I suspect this change by the Education Ministry won't be as big as they claim....and will still protect the typical status of most higher-educated Germans. They might waive the little guys with just four-to-five years of university....but I'll bet that the rest of the German geeks are completely protected.

My Ten Germany Travel Tips

2010-10-21T02:45:00.001+02:00

I'm always willing to offer some advice on Germany. You have to remember....this is an American (from the South) who speaks and offers these tips. I might be thinking in a radical way than a regular tourist expert would suggest.

First, there are 2,500 things of significance to see in Germany...if I'm really honest about this. It's best to simply pick a region you'd really like to see, and narrow your list down to two hundred things in that region....and just be happy with that logic.

Second, yes, the vast number of Germans you bump into....under the age of forty....will speak some limited English. Don't count on bus drivers, bakery clerks, farmers, or grocery clerks being in that list. However, taxi-drivers, 14-year old kids, and pharmacy folks....probably have a higher chance of speaking (only my humble observations).

Third, read over a travel book in terms of food menu items and have five things that you might be interested in eating. Remember that pork is key to any meal (normally). Remember that salt is always used in abundance. If you have issues with hot food, don't order Gypsy-Schnitzel. Lunches tend to be a minor meal, so lean on the dinner for your maximum enjoyment of food for the day.

Fourth, if in a major town like Hamburg or Munich....use public transportation. Do not rent a car and expect to drive around these areas. It's one thing to drive from one city to another....but within the city regions....you are better off in getting a all-day ticket for $8 and enjoying yourself.

Fifth, the best seasons? Well....April through June is a low period of tourism with decent weather. September through the end of October is great but expect rains and cooler weather. Summer months are great but they can also be miserably hot (don't readily expect air conditioning everywhere). Always have a sweater around in your bag.

Sixth, yes, soda cans and bottles are on a deposit deal. So you need to return them to any shop.....to get your deposit back. It's stupid but all Germans play this game.

Seventh, you can travel reasonable and stay at pensions or gasthauses. This works out great in Bavaria and in smaller towns. It's possible to stay in a decent place for $20 and even get a breakfast out of the deal. The other side to this is that things will be rustic and very regular (like staying at Grandma's house for a evening).

Eighth, if you rent a car....figure out a way to get a GPS for the period there. You really need it. If you go by train....just a simple pocket map will be sufficient. Utilize the GPS for traffic jams, if necessary.

Ninth, don't stand there and expect 'friendly' Germans everywhere. Germans are a bit different. If you need help or directions....ask for it. Otherwise, a German won't go out of their way unless you indicate you have issues. Typically....they won't deny you help.

Tenth, alcohol is a bit different in Germany. If you order a beer, by the liter (which occurs in Bavaria)....then you could start to feel a bit drunk on the first one. And you'd be fairly wasted by the third. The various schnapps can taste like a glass of apple juice, but then pack a punch. Honey schnapps won't even taste like alcohol. So don't stand there and get drunk....then pass out under a tree (like those other tourists).

Above all....don't expect a trip to Germany to be cheap. Things just don't work that way. But you can travel on a decent budget if you are careful.

Heatballs

2010-10-19T04:19:00.000+02:00

The EU (the actual device itself, which runs Europe) came out with this big rule....banning the sale of light bulbs. Their intention was to switch everyone over to energy efficiency....by force. If you made a bulb with 60 watts of power....you were banned in Europe. It was a simple deal.

It was a shocker to some folks when this news came out. Frankly, a couple of Germans actually took it with a bit of hostility and anger. They thought the open market ought to determine things, and not the EU.

So this German guy....Siegfried Rotthaeuser sat around of thought of a nifty way of getting around the EU law. Basically, they are still importing and distributing 75 and 100 watt bulbs in Germany (from China).

Siegfried and his brother-in-law....paused over these larger bulbs, and then realized that they weren't really light bulbs....they were "small heating devices."

Siegfried then created a new product called "heatballs."

You can see where this is going. A German will not be forced down. Once their mind clicks into turbo....they are out to maneuver around any stupid limits that you put in their way. You can imagine the brilliance here.....heatballs. Who would have dreamed something like this up? And even if the idiots of the EU took him into court....he's prepared to show that 95 percent of a normal bulb....is heat. There can't be a argument in any court in Germany. I suspect that dozens of judges are sitting there and hoping their local court will be the place where they can rip up the EU folks.

The cost of heatballs? They are discounting for around 1.70 Euro (roughly $2.40) each. The boys were active in the first four days....selling all of the ordered batch of 4k. You can figure they raked in $4k for their effort....and I suspect they've got the Chinese plant producing 100k more. It'd be helpful if they had this all registered so they'd own "heatballs" completely. I suspect a couple of companies are hoping to create "nuke-balls", "hot-balls", and even "turbo-balls".....just to carry the joke on.

I have to respect that brilliance that can come out of German engineers....even if they aren't really inventing anything new but a name.

The Difference

2010-10-18T06:48:00.034+02:00

Years ago, I sat and watched some German Sunday night political chat show. With the moderator counted as well...there were three political folks and three journalists. But there was actually another thing I came to notice by the end of the 75 minutes of non-stop nonsense type political chatter....there were six people in front of me who were university graduates and actually more of a elitist group than anything else.

Over the fifteen years I spent in Germany, I had come to grasp dozens of occasions where there was an absolute difference between elitist Germans and "regular" Germans.

Elitist Germans tend to run every newspaper and national media outlet. Elitist Germans run just about every major substantial company in Germany. Elitist Germans run not only the national university system, but also your local school district.

A guy like Bill Gates coming up with an amazing idea and launching it into a major enterprise within twenty years in Germany? Never. It simply can't happen. The banking structure, the political structure, the national media, and various other stumbling blocks would ensure that something like that can't happen.

I had an American make the simple analysis that the last time that a regular German came out of nowhere to take on the "machine"....it was Adolph Hitler. I laughed over the analysis and kept thinking I would find lots of regular people that launched careers and beat the system.

In the entertainment arena....there's Dieter Bolan. I admit....he is difficult and probably impossible for people to work with....but most of everything he touches....is a success. Dieter would be the first to admit that he's pretty much a regular guy and really just wants to entertain you.

There are a handful of political figures without any university degree and they've done ok for themselves in life.

But on the whole of things.....this mighty nation is faced each Sunday evening with the thought and analysis of university elites. For those who tune into channel one around 9:45 after Tatort....it's 75-odd minutes of political thought by elites, and not much else.

This recent topic of integration? Well....the majority of the cultural and university elites don't see a problem. They'd keep this train running on the same track. The guys from the local plant? The folks from the local pub? The crowd that hangs out at the soccer stadium? They have a vastly different view. It doesn't matter where you go in Germany....they see too many foreigners and an influence that they dislike.

It would be fascinating to have the Sunday night political chat show dump for one evening all of these political and university elites, and pick six random folks out from the Koln bahnhof (train-station), or six folks from the local pub in Hochspeyer, or six women from some farming community in Bavaria. It might be a shocking evening where people lay out their top five priorities in life, explain why the education is so screwed up, and why German police are the only thing in the nation left that they all trust.

The odds of just a regular debate with regular people? Zero. You just can't allow a bunch of regular people express brilliance, because then....what would do with all the elites of Germany?

German Tourism

2010-10-17T10:41:00.001+02:00

Somewhere off the coast of France is a British isle, where 65,000 Brits live. It's barely 50 miles by 50 miles...and to be honest, it's alot closer to France than Britain. It's not exactly widely known....the name? Guernsey.

Air Berlin came up this week and probably shocked a few folks by carving out this new business operation in 2011....a weekly flight (only on Saturdays) to the isle.

It's supposed to fly out of Dusseldorf on a medium sized plane.

It's hard to imagine why a German would go there. The best temperatures in summer? Barely at 75, and that's for July and August. Most of the year, it's windy and chilly place to be. Business? There's some but nothing substantial. Hidden assets? Well....this might invite a few Germans to entertain the idea of hiding their money there.

So when you see this ad pop up for Guernsey and wonder where the heck it is....just remember it's a little bit of France and England combined, with a bunch of Germans running loose, in the midst of the English Channel.

That Integration Problem

2010-10-17T10:25:00.001+02:00

Sometimes, a poll will trigger a major speech by a political figure....just to square away the field. This week in Germany....a poll came out saying that roughly a third of Germans now believe there are too many foreigners in Germany.

The Chancellor came out to suggest that "immigrants should learn to speak German". Merkel then went onto say that a multicultural society in Germany was failing.

It's an interesting speech. The media will want to defend multicultural feelings, but I suspect when you get down the common worker level of Germany....it's hard to find anyone really in support of this aspect of life in Germany today.

The draw to Germany? Jobs. When you come to the common everyday job that most Germans simply don't appreciate and probably won't apply for....then you have to have someone to fill it. The German population isn't soaring and they've kept the gate open for people to enter for a number of years. This integration issue....has been a lingering thing that most now admit....is a problem.

My guess is that someone will come out by Monday to challenge Merkel for her comments. I don't think it's going to help the opposition very much to counter German national opinion. The public isn't buying into this argument.

This Euro Game

2010-10-16T03:04:00.000+02:00

I have this thing I monitor from Arlington....over in Germany....at least three or four times a week. The Euro rate. I still have bills to pay, even from this distance.

In 1984....I sat and watched the old Deutsche-mark rate. It was amazing. It was around 3 per a dollar, which is a significant thing over what I observed in 1979 when it was just barely at 2.2 per dollar.

I came to envision this rate as a McDonalds burger meal situation. In the US, to buy a whopper menu in 1979....you would spent around $2.50. With the rate of 3 per dollar.....it got to be even less that you paid for a whopper meal.

So years pass, and around the end of 1999....Europe flips over to the Euro, and it's one to one. A whopper menu is back to roughly $5 (at least by the price of the times).

Ever since 2000 though, the dollar rate has fallen. A dollar only buys .69 Euro today.....so a whopper menu meal is now around $8. It's pretty significant, if you think about this.

My old boss with the company in Ramstein once commented that the company's expert on Germany was predicting this massive shift with the incoming Obama administration. Everyone was thinking the dollar would gain and things would go back up to a more healthy relationship.

Well....that has come and gone. The US is now desperate for US business to succeed in Europe. So they've pushed the dollar back down. For a German, the PT Cruiser is now a very affordable car.....even if it's not 4-star quality. A vacation in America can be done on 1k Euro (ten days in a hotel and an airline ticket). A German could sell his German house upon retirement....move to America, buy a small home in Tennessee, and toss $150k into some retirement account.

The comical thing to this whole thing....is that the US has built this strategy to help the US economy survive....by under-valuing its currency. It's a risky and possibly stupid strategy. The honest truth is that both the Bush and Obama administrations have used the same tools. Sitting there somewhere in North Carolina...is some guy who is devising a deal....that would interest a French guy or some Bavarian....and make them buy North Carolina products. And it's the only way to get financially ahead, which is kind of sad.

The Next CDU?

2010-10-15T11:47:00.000+02:00

There's some speculation that Merkel and the current CDU situation have run out of gas. Over the past couple of months, several German newspapers have noted the joint situation between the CDU and the FDP just isn't working. The humorous side of this, is that Germany has come back from their economic stumble and companies are hiring people. In most environments, you'd have lots of support.....but that isn't the case for the CDU.

The next step? Elections might end up being called early. My belief is that the Greens will somehow move into a stronger situation and the SPD ends up as the winner with a Green partnership. Three to four years will pass, with more discontent....and then a CDU return occurs. Of course, Guttenberg ends up being the guy bringing the CDU back.

Normally, it's a sour economy that dumps a political party out of favor in Germany. It's been that way for fifty years. You don't see that in the current environment. Across Europe, Germany is actually in the best economic position of the past ten years. For an outsider like me, this is a odd situation.

Germany's New Passion

2010-10-14T03:10:00.001+02:00

This is a topic that I kinda dislike...the wellness stuff. Yes, I would stamp it "bogus", but in the real world...it makes money and translates into jobs for people.

There's an excellent article over at Hotel News....which discusses Germany's wellness empire. It's growing and starting to amount to a strong element of Germany's tourist business.

From 2008....it's noted that over 415k international visitors took a wellness holiday in Germany. I would speculate that the numbers are as good or better for 2010.

For over a decade, I've observed more and more advertisements....in German newspapers, via German TV, and via German travel sites over wellness operations. For some hotels....there's a fair amount of investment involved. They had to switch from a strong normal tourism situation....to plus-up their staff, their kitchen team, and find sports-related situations to challenge guests.

I would imagine that every community has at least one hotel within a ten mile circle in Germany....that hits on wellness. You could be in the midst of farm territory in East Germany....and suddenly find a small hotel that has some award for gourmet food or some relaxing skin treatment.

The nifty thing to this? It translates into jobs, and the folks interested in this...are welling to toss out a fair sum of money for a weekend trip to some rural area....to "chill".

The gal involved wants skin treatment or some relaxing massage. The guy wants a good hike or some bike trail. They end up at the gourmet table with a fancy salad or some special one-of-a-kind fish. Toss in a nice wine, and they've left a fair bit of money in the local community....and bumped up the employment sector by two percent. Germans tend to appreciate every ounce of an improving economy....no matter where it comes from.

The Threat of Facebook

2010-10-13T05:13:00.001+02:00

There's a story from Bloomberg over Porsche. The company is now pushing to block employees' access to social-networking platforms . The fear of Facebook? Espionage.

The guys who run Porsche got around to thinking over what goes onto Facebook, and they believe that spies...maybe even foreign intelligence services....might be watching their employees. Even Twitter bothers them.

Apparently, the company even went to lengths to know the portion of Porsche's employees using sites like this.....a quarter of the 13k employees.

It's an interesting view from a company. If Ford or GM came out with a push like this....the union would be up in arms. There would be a hostile view of such a suggestion. The attitude of the German employees? I'm guessing that pride of being associated with Porsche is such....that they would readily consume the order, and quietly shut down their site or try to act totally anonymous.

Are there spies? I'd wager yes. There is such a positive view of Porsche and their products....that people would really like to know inside stories....the newest trends....the secrets of how the engine works, etc. In a way, it's comical because you can imagine a spy sitting there and all they do is probe Facebook sites and look for ways to exploit some guy named Huns from Stuttgart, who frequents the Canary Islands every year with his girlfriend, and he has an interest in one soccer team.

This is not the kind of spying that folks are used to. They expect folks looking for blackmail angles....sexual secrets....and money issues.

I'm guessing that as the months go by....other German companies will take the same action. Even political figures will eventually think about the issues and tell their staffs to dump Facebook accounts.

When the Turk Speaks

2010-10-13T04:51:00.000+02:00

It is a shocking interview. Bild (which is the number one newspaper of Germany, without argument...quality might be worth the argument though)....got to interview the Turkish minister for EU affairs (Egemen Bagis).

Mr. Bagis was very open, and the conversation at one point turned around recommend that Turks in Germany....need to learn the language, the customs, and the conventions of nation.

I read the short commentary from the Local. It's not the kind of comments that you'd expect.

Out of eighty million counted residents of Germany....roughly 3.5 million Turkish immigrants exist. It's a significant number. There are two major angles to this game. The Turks back in Turkey would like for this immigrant group to remember their roots and play out the dual-citizen angle. In public, it's a daily affair where comments are made that would upset the typical German citizen. The other side of this involves Turks who happily left Turkey, and want a completely different life....to include an economic freedom that goes way behind what they could have had.

At the end of this interview....the minister comes out with the biggest suggestion of all....“Send your children to the best schools so they will have a future!”

Maybe there's been comments like this before....but I don't remember hearing them. So, there might finally be a change.

The Cash Nation

2010-10-10T17:16:00.000+02:00

There's a story over at the Local today....discussing this interesting side to Germans....the act of carrying cash and using it, instead of charge cards.

The fact is...as the Bundesbank discusses....an average German carries around 118 Euro around with them in cash. Around 6.70 Euro is in coins.

As the story goes.....Germans are simply more prone to use cash, than credit cards.

I lived in Germany for fifteen years and readily observed that attitude. There are exceptions. Germans typically use their bank card for gas purchases....but when you consider a tank of gas costs around the equalivent of 55-65 Euro (roughly $80-90), it makes sense. Groceries are often in the same category as well because a full-run will cost in the 100 Euro range (roughly $140).

The use of the card for 40 Euro purchases? I've rarely seen it. Germans like the idea of going over to the local bank on weekends....taking out 100-odd Euro for what they need. They know their habits. They buy a bag of brotchens for three Euro in the morning. They might buy a beer after work. The wife gives them a box lunch for work. They stop and buy a newspaper but nothing else.

Germans are programmed on spending, and the switch to credit cards is a long trail.

It is true, the Swedes are fast advancing to a society where credit cards will become the only method of paying for expenses within thirty years. But I don't see that in Germany.

I sat a couple of years ago at a German pub and paid up my bill. The owner rounded up the meal and beer....and then wrote the cost on a slip of paper. I paid in cash. A receipt? No. Reported income to the state? No.

You see, there is another side to this charge card business.

My old mechanic in Germany used to have a simple deal....pay for the parts via a charge card if I wanted, but the actual work was cash only. I worked with a guy who had a bathroom renovation project done....all in cash and done on weekends. He paid about thirty percent less than a guy who did it with receipts and a cash trail for the tax folks.

I doubt this habit will change. Germans will hold to cash for a century or two....until politicians get the courage to force to switch.

My Ten Observations of Nazi Germany

2010-10-09T04:20:00.002+02:00

After living fifteen years in Germany....one reflects alot about prior perceptions and odd topics. I sat and pondered over my list of ten observations of Nazi Germany.

1. 1945-1946 ended up being the worst and most miserable period of German history that people could remember. The average German suffered almost everyday and the chief priority was simply to find food and adequate warmth in the winter months....and little else. This is why the rebuilding of Germany, the jobs, the booming economy of the 50s/60s all meant so much. In the late 70s when I arrived in Germany and worked around older Germans who came out of the war....there was this tremendous appreciation of everything gained over that era. They all remembered that brief two-year period and how bad it felt.

2. Autobahns came up in the late 1930s to Germany. It was a state project with significant implications for the future. The truth though? From the massive plan....probably less than one percent of today's autobahns had been built by the end of 1945. The boom occurred in the 50s/60s, and then the regular people of Germany could see the brilliance of the plan. Alot of people still believe that the mass of the autobahn system was in existence before WW II....and it simply wasn't.

3. In small towns and rural areas of Germany...property taken after the Jews were grabbed...tended to be kept permanently, and even sixty years later....folks in the community have no idea of how a dozen farmers here or a dozen business owners there....came to acquire their property. The truth is....the public doesn't want to know either, because it'd just stir the negativity pot just a bit more.

4. There are lots of statues over the countryside of Germany which go hand-in-hand with WW I. Every town has one. Even the little village next to where I lived...with 100 residents....has a WW I statue. But then you start looking for WW II statues....and you just don't find them. I've probably seen three or four in the fifteen years I lived there....and there's probably more in urban areas than smaller towns, but you really have to go looking to find them.

5. By the 1940 period....the economy of Germany had boomed as far as it was going....and the war was covering for the depression which which should have occurred. The Hitler economic period had lasted roughly six years before it maxed out. Toss in the state works projects and the massive construction boom funded mostly an empty bucket of revenue....and you had issues. Without the war, they would have seen a five to ten year period of depression.

6. Hitler's popularity....came from speeches. He was just a regular guy from some small village school....with an interest in art...who'd spent a couple of years in WW I as a motorcycle messenger. I'm often amazed looking back over the traveling around Germany....to gaze at how a insignificant character became this 'respected rock-star-like and larger-than-life' legend. This is simply a guy who orchestrated a mental image when he spoke, and people tended to believe in his vision of a new Germany.

7. Adolph Hitler wrote absolutely nothing prior to Mein Kampf, and almost nothing after it. I've read various commentary over the speeches....but there isn't much of anything else. There are a couple of pieces that the Party put out....owing back to Hitler....but you can can view them as written by the Party machine. I've come to believe over the last few years that Mein Kampf....while it might have Hitler's name attached to it....probably was simply a list of ideas that Hitler wrote down, and the Party apparatus came up to fill in the other ninety percent with its dialog. I've wasted two attempts on reading book and never gotten past sixty pages. It's the kind of political dialog document that you need to read two pages a day and just put it down after that for a while to reflect. I realize it's a radical thing....but I will simply suggest that Hitler probably never wrote anything himself....except speeches.

8. Germany's form of "building governments", ended up being the method that Hitler stepped from a minor-league party...to dictator of Germany. The 1930 election ended with the Nazis having 18 percent of the vote (they were number two). But because of so many parties and split notions of problems in the country....the winner...SPD...ended up with this unlikely and unhealthy relationship. Other than joining a partnership with the Communist Party, there wasn't alot of choices. Having dozens of choices on what party to vote for....has its consequences.

9. Small villages stood up for WW I and sent off a dozen young men from their 200 resident town. By 1919, if they were lucky....maybe half returned. The first world war took a major portion of the young male population. Barely twenty years later....the small towns and villages repeated the same episode. The two wars hurt small-town Germany a great deal....probably more than what they'd want to admit.

10. I spent a fair amount of time reading over Hitler from the period. At some point, I suddenly came to realize that Hitler was doing acid. This likely came later during the war years. You sit and ponder over what came out of the 1960s and the various LSD implications. It's hard to imagine having a world leader who was doing a massive hallucinogenic type drug. There's no dependability or reasoning that you can have with a regular user like this. Yet, the Nazi machine continued on...mostly because there was really no number two. It was a like a baseball team with Micky Mantle and twenty-four guys out of high school. The Nazis built their machine on one face and one perception.

Just humble observations.

Ten Things About German Recycling

2010-10-08T04:13:00.000+02:00

If you were an American moving into Germany....one of the biggest things you need to adjust to....is recycling. So I'm offering ten bits of advice on the topic.

First, don't ever take recycling as a joke. Germans will quickly spend ten minutes trying to restore your insanity if you make a comical joke about it, or you really screw up badly recycling. Once they start on this tirade, just stand there and don't smile or grin. Take your punishment and just hope that it ends in three minutes rather than ten minutes.

Second, batteries are special. Don't ever throw them in the regular garbage. At your local grocery....as you walk in....there will be a box to toss them in. Just save them up and toss them each week.

Third, yes, there are garbage police. It was a joke five years ago, but even now in most smaller towns and communities...there's some guy who comes around once or twice a year to open your can on disposal day. If you have issues....he'll note your bar-code and fine you. The can won't be picked up until you pay that fee and fix your issue typically. So my hint....if you want to violate the rules....do it and then dump a bunch of stuff on top of your issue (just my humble secret advice).

Fourth, that bottle container is only for certain hours of the day. If you leave home at 5AM and want to dump three wine bottles at the can in the middle of your town...forget it. Don't dump your bottles on Sundays because that's typically forbidden. So read the sign and ensure you don't have your car-tag noted by the locals and reported.

Fifth, if you screw up and don't push the paper container out on the right day....and miss your disposal chance....you are screwed big-time. It'll be two weeks before the next episode and you might have to keep a garbage bag in the basement with overflowing paper until the big can gets emptied. So track your days carefully.

Sixth, garbage is picked up by a contracted company and your fee typically goes to the county office itself. If you rent, your landlord covers everything. If you own....then you have to arrange things yourself. The guys at the county office will ask you how many members are in the family at the beginning, and this relates to how big a can you get. Typically....add one kid onto this because Americans donate more garbage than the average German (don't ask why).

Seventh, bio cans are a unique topic. If you have a leaf/bio pile in the your backyard....then you avoid this little fee and can. My guess is that thirty percent of German homeowners operate without the bio can. The bio can is probably the stinkiest mess that you will ever deal with because everything organic goes into it. A word of warning....citrus fruit typically is not allowed into the can. Again, one of those German things.

Eighth, leaves. You can dump leaves into your bio can or you can gather them up for a bag which you can dump yourself at the town's bio yard (usually free). German neighbors typically sneak over and dump their leaves into your bio can....only because they've overfilled their own can. So be watchful.

Ninth, the worst time of the garbage year? Typically Christmas week. Your can is filled by the half-way point and you've got a bag in the hallway to collect the overflow. The garbage guys are running some type of special schedule for that two-week period, but no one is ever sure about that schedule.

Tenth, your Christmas tree is a unique episode for disposal. Take the tree down by the 2nd or 3rd of January. Move the tree to your front yard and wait for some signal of everyone moving their trees out as darkness falls for a early morning pick-up. It's advertised in some local paper, but rarely seen because it's just a one-liner on some paragraph. If you miss that pick-up.....it's best to just take a saw and cut the thing up to toss in the bio can.

Germans took to recycling as though it was a personal matter. There's no jokes about this business as far as the culture goes. Just accept that and your visit to Germany will be fine.

An Observation Over the SPD

2010-10-07T04:38:00.000+02:00

Back during the Gerhard Schroeder years....1998 to 2005....there was this relationship between the SPD party and the Greens in Germany. A number of the SPD members sat and watched a fairly different spin on topics that were different from the SPD norm. By the end of the Schroeder era, I had the impression that relationship had hurt the SPD more in the long-run....than help.

This week, a poll taken by Stern magazine and RTL (the independent TV network)....determined that the Greens had finally surged ahead in popular support.

The Greens had generally been this party that pulled in six to eight percent of the national vote. The poll gave them almost 24 percent. That's a point ahead of the SPD.

For the older members of the SPD....there has to be this scratching of the head....a moment of pondering of where a minor party like the Greens comes up to be a major competitor.

I pondered over this a while, and eventually came to realize that there's no election for at least two years (unless a number of factors occur). The SPD has been in a low period for a while, and they need to look like they are coming from behind....to factor in this massive push. So I'm thinking this might not be a totally honest or reliable poll.

One would have to assume half of the SPD membership just giving up on the party entirely....and that's not typical German behavior. So within twelve months....I'll predict another poll which shows the SPD suddenly recovering and surging ahead.....as if they were way behind, which I doubt is the actual case.

Daimler News

2010-10-06T11:40:00.000+02:00

I am impressed.

It's something that you just don't see from a major company. Daimler AG...our friendly Mercedes folks.....decided after a bribery case in the US....that they had to pay $185 million in fines....that they would a new position to the board. It's a integrity officer.

The official job.....integrity and legal....would oversee the compliance side of the company, and ensure business ethics was preached throughout the company.

The odds of this having an effect? Well....here's the issue in todays world. You have to compete. Sometimes, you have to stretch your profit to the point where it's not much of a profit to brag about. I suspect that every employee will spend at least two hours in some ethics class over the next twelve months. Some might spend an entire day.

The only way to make up for that.....is some type of deal made in a pub late at night between two guys that has some legal issues tied to their discussions. Typically....it'd lean toward being called a bribe. Sometimes, you can be creative and make it an "incentive" instead. Folks hate incentives because it's just not as easy as bribes to handle. You have to work a bit to make incentives show up.

The guy taking this job for Daimler AG? I suspect that he'll find a good bit of work, and over a year....he will accomplish several major feats. But I suspect he'll move on as he realizes that a number of attitudes in the sales area of the company can't be readily fixed by ethics training. Ethics is ethics, but money is money.

MTV in Germany

2010-10-06T11:21:00.000+02:00

It's an interesting German article over at the Hollywood Reporter....MTV-Germany is going from free-TV to pay-TV....starting in January.

The driving issue is simple....over the past year or two....advertising rates on MTV-Germany haven't been at the same rate as a couple of years ago. This deal is supposed to give some growth potential and profit to MTV-Germany.

Its hard to say if this logic holds up. The cable TV business in Germany has grown over the past decade. Every year...more homes get added to the list. The question will arise over packages and whether German teenagers will demand dad include it in their package.

The curious thing is that MTV overall has become a reality channel...instead of a music channel. Right now....reality TV is hot in Germany....and if you had to pick a time to drag customers over to cable and continue your presence...then this might be it.

My Perception of Germans & 9-11

2010-10-05T01:41:00.000+02:00

Someone asked me once....how Germans would react, if they had their own 9-11.

I sat and pondered over this for twenty seconds, and then I responded with Kristallnacht. It's the ninth and tenth of November 1938, and the Nazis created an 'event' which led to massive arrest across Germany of Jewish males...thirty thousand by the end of this created episode.

It is absolutely true in that some Jews did lead demonstrations in the days and hours before Kristallnacht, but they simply opened a door for a staged event. Most Germans came to believe that the Jews brought this event on themselves entirely....although the Nazis themselves created the event. Foreign correspondents reported the event and captured the true side of the event in the end. The curious thing is that the German public was sold on a massive arrest situation and it wasn't that difficult.

Yes, there were still Germans who doubted the complex nature of the riots and what the Jews were accused of....but the bulk of Germany believed what was said.

Today, more of this massive new threat has been detailed in the press. The US has raised its threat indicator for Americans traveling into Europe. The actual true threat? It's now believed that dozens of Turkish-German suspected militants went to Pakistan for training, and it's now believed that several native Germans have converted over to the jihad groups.

The threat perceived is that they were react in Europe (possibly Germany) in the fashion that India saw in Mumbai. Over a hundred dead in the end....within the hotel complex.

My perception is that an event like Mumbai in Germany....would be like Kristallnacht. It wouldn't take much discussion for Germans to go anti-Muslim and establish some pretty heft rules. Why the change in attitude? Remember that average Germans have this iron-clad thing about civilization and folks acting in a certain fashion. If you can trigger Germans into thinking that you aren't agreeable to civilization or safe conduct in public....your friendly welcome is virtually gone, overnight.

So, I'm really hoping that this is all a big fake story in the end....because if some dimwits think that Germans will just act like Americans in a 9-11 situation, they might have perceived Germans entirely wrong. This might be the last society to screw with and just walk away. They've proven that point already.

Stuttgart 21 Issues

2010-10-04T10:14:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, Deutsche Bahn CEO Rüdiger Grube finally stood up and wrote a personal column in the Sunday Bild over the Stuttgart 21 project.

For those who wondering about it? It's a massive 10-year project, costing a significant amount of money, and will cause massive street closures throughout the city for long periods of that decade. It just started in the past month, and massive protests have gone on almost daily. Herr Grube came out swinging at the negative comments made on the project.

At the end of his argument....Grube finally came to the key point: "In our country, parliaments decide, no one else." He tried to establish the point that decisions have to made eventually....not by citizens on the street, but by the people.

I sat and read over negative comments at the Local (one of my ten sources of German news). Most folks were going against Grube, and wanted to press the point that "people are the government".

I am of the belief that Grube is absolutely correct. We don't want riot-squads to determine the fate of a city or a state. Nor would any community appreciate the leadership of anarchists in determining their future.

I see this as a case of amnesia that the opposition is undergoing. Over the past decade, this project has been mentioned in the local press of Stuttgart, and the entire region. Significant protests or court actions to halt the actions then? No. None of these mighty protest groups did anything of local/state significance to halt the project. It took over fifteen years of planning, discussion in the local area, and then the push along state/national levels to get funding. Plenty of time to stop a project, IF anyone truly wanted that as their agenda.

What you have now are some unhappy residents who have to stand and watch ten years of construction in their backyard, a bunch of under-achiever anarchists from Stuttgart and the region who want to demonstrate their powers to stop a state-run project, and teenagers in Stuttgart who are looking for fun & adventure when it comes to riots or protests.

The cost factor in this argument? Amusingly enough...every single project that goes beyond two years....from autobahns to bridges....is typically an estimate. They all tend to go higher, especially projects going past five years. So, why don't you all use this argument and stop every single major autobahn project in Germany right now? Wouldn't it also make sense to take them down as well....because of the false estimate on costs? If you want true costs on every single project.....then make a stand. Obviously, none of you grasp that part of the argument, because you never argue about bridges, roads, railway projects, airport projects, etc.

Finally, if I'm city management and the anarchists win in this case. I'd put the old station back into operation, undo whats been done, and then refuse to renovate much of any train station in the city for the next twenty years. I'd save my money and just work on streets and bridges. Eventually, everyone will look at a run-down train station in the middle of the city and demand action. Then, with the roof leaking, I'll smile and say sure....bringing out the old 10-year plan and put it right back in action. People who are stupid today to fight something....will be just as stupid in a decade or two to accept the same thing. The young anarchists will have grown up and latched onto anchors like a job, family, a house, a better community, etc. .

Just my two cents on a Stuttgart issue.

The Next Round of Privacy Woes

2010-10-03T14:12:00.000+02:00

You can see this fight brewing with the newest privacy topic....a German network site wants to take pictures of every school in the country, and then start to anchor people via "Stayfriends", that will keep people together for the decades to come.

It's legal right now....as long as no humans are in the picture. Course, with the current fight underway about privacy...I'm guessing that even taking pictures of public buildings and putting them online....will eventually be illegal.

Naturally, I sat there and pondered over this topic of discussion. The picture I used? It's the playground (yes, all the playground) of the local elementary school in the village where I lived in Germany. No real trees, and a good fence to keep the punks locked in.

Would I care if anyone took a picture like this and anchored down the school on some Facebook-style site? I thought about this long and hard....and frankly....I don't see any issue. I know of Germans who are absolutely dedicated to pub, and will frequent it every Thursday night for the next forty years. Would he even care if we took pictures of all pubs in Germany and had a Facebook-like site for pub 'membership'? I have my doubts.

The amusing thing to this whole discussion is that half the German adult population doesn't use their computer for much of anything, and probably wouldn't join some site with the school pictures. I'd even go as far to say that forty percent of all Germans have a negative view of their old school and would never want anything connecting them to the school or half the people they knew in the school.

Just my humble two cents on the topic.

Germans and Unification

2010-10-02T14:58:00.000+02:00

Germany has been playing up this knowledge factor of knowing all about reunification. They've sat in on meetings with South Korea, and the two of them are kinda writing this script on how North and South Korea could possibly unite one day.

To be honest, there are a bunch of mistakes that Germany made when it's unification occurred with East Germany. Even today....over twenty years later....folks still point out the obvious.

I will offer five observations from this German unification episode.

First, even a year after they'd put themselves together....German officials were shocked when they walked into intelligence collection efforts going on.....because no one had ordered the East German system to stand down. So folks were still being paid to spy or listen in on telephone conversations. It's helpful if you start on day one and just say....no spying unless we say so.

Second, there's this factor of 'second-rate' life that folks still observe today in East Germany. Yes, there's been billions and billions spent....and it'll go on for another couple of decades before the nation is basically equal.

Third, amusingly enough, some folks still think the good old days in East Germany were better than today. Lack of jobs....lifestyle.....comforts....trust...etc, etc. It's not a large group that believes this, but enough.

Fourth, crime in East Germany wasn't exactly a top ten problem issue in the 1980s. Today, virtually every single town will report some type of crime issue in their top ten problems. With the good life, came issues that the locals didn't ever have to deal with.

Fifth and final....no matter what you say, reunification costs money....lots of money. Who pays? The richer of the two. So North Korea is stone-cold broke, and if they ever did unite.....it's the South Koreans that would have to pull out the wallet and pay for decades to come.

On the positive side....Germany could write a 10,000 page book on how not to screw up on unification. They know every angle of this. On the negative side....knowing how to avoid mistakes doesn't mean that things work out great for both groups of people. I suspect we are decades away from a united Korea. Maybe thats enough time to grasp the problems ahead.

Back to Stuttgart

2010-10-01T12:07:00.000+02:00

I went through reading The Local today....my daily habit of five or six German news sources....and here was the latest update over the Stuttgart train station. I mentioned the start-up of this massive project....likely to take eight to ten years....to rebuild the whole train station apparatus of Stuttgart and the various lines leading into or out of the city. Various parts of the city are being shut down to traffic for a year at a time....which is infuriating some folks. Hostility crosses a number of lines and a fair number of folks are extremely upset.

The first real day of attack/counter-attack came yesterday.....as twenty-five trees were cut down in a nearby park. The cops were in full force and ended up with 116 protesters injured. A couple of them were hauled off to the hospital but most just suffered from pepper spray. The cops had a handful in the same category. Pepper spray is a pretty good device to use with mass crowds....either you back off, or you walk around rubbing your eyes alot.

Based on this report....the local cops brought in a thousand extra cops and they were prepared for plenty of action. The amusing thing reported? You had a couple of school kids injured (4 x 16-year old, 1 x 14-year old, and 1 x 12-year old). Yeah, this protest has widen to interest local kids in skipping school and getting into some action downtown. You can imagine mom getting this call at the bakery....Johan Jr is over at the hospital after getting into the protest. I'm betting more kids get interested in this protest and skip school to have an adventure.

The best quote of the day? From the protesters came: “The police are extremely aggressive.” Yes, indeed. Should you expect anything but that?

Winter is still a good six weeks away, and that's probably the only relief for cops. I don't see many protesters out in extremely cold weather for hours and hours.

I would also predict that the local judges will start to become more aggressive as more folks continue to be arrested along time. Full charges will be leveled....full jail times handed out....and some folks will be told by their university, their boss, or their husband/wife....to get out of this protest or be dumped.

Ten Things to Know About German Public Transportation

2010-09-30T05:16:00.032+02:00

First, never travel without a ticket or pass. If you get caught....it's a fair amount of fine that you pay.

Second, trains and buses tend to run on time. Don't ever get the idea that being just a minute early will suffice. If they say the train leaves at 16:22....that means it's likely pulling in around 16:19 and you need to be standing there to jump on. It will leave precisely at 16:22.

Third, go to Bahn.de to find the schedule of getting from point A to point B. Find the English symbol to switch languages.

Fourth, yes, a guy could live without a car in metropolitan cities like Hamburg, Berlin or Frankfurt. In fact, with all the hassle of parking....I might actually suggest to avoid buying a car if you intend to live in a major city. But if you get into this state of mind....always carry 50 Euro in your pocket for a taxi ride if necessary.

Fifth, remember that train lines run at 75 percent on Saturdays, and 50 percent on Sundays. Returning from a long trip on Sundays can be a risky situation because of fewer choices and more crowded trains.

Sixth, yes, there is always a heavily discounted monthly or quarterly or even yearly pass in metropolitan cities. Before you rush off to buy the yearly ticket....ride the train for two months and make sure it's what you want to do. A yearly pass could save you forty percent over a day-by-day pass.

Seventh, while buying snacks on the run at the train station is acceptable....don't waste your money on the fruit stand or grocery there....it's generally thirty percent higher.

Eighth, adjust your clothing situation to the weather prediction. If they say it's freezing for the day....don't run off to ride the train in a light jacket. You just might have to stand at a platform for twenty minutes waiting, and that might be a negative experience.

Ninth, robbery around German train stations doesn't happen....but don't get the idea of standing in dark corners of the train station at 10PM at night.

Tenth, yes, people do bring their dogs onboard buses and trains....and yes, they do have fleas. So if you notice anything moving on the dog by your leg...it'd be best to stand up and find another corner of the train to sit in. Just some simple advice from a country guy to new folks in Germany.

Kabel Eins

2010-09-29T00:33:00.001+02:00

I've discussed most of the state-run TV networks and channels....and now for a brief introduction of Kabel Eins.

It's a commercial operation that runs with mostly American series or German reality shows. I'd refer to it as the Wal-Mart of German TV because they run the cheaper programming or older movies.

The interesting thing is that if you sat down with a group of 15 to 20-year old kids.....you'd find that most watch a couple hours a week of Kabel Eins. Between the reality shows and the comedy....there's something that they appreciate. Statistics show that they pull in around five or six percent of the audience in Germany....but the bulk of that is younger viewers.

The 'hit' of the reality shows on this network? Mein Neues Leben. It's a show over Germans who just gave up and left Germany. They weave this sixty minute show around three families. Folks move to Texas, Canada, Sweden, Turkey, South Korea, and some even move back to Germany after admitting they screwed up. Typically, two of the familities had some planning in this move involved. The third just packed up and left....and it's like Gilligan's Island with a mess every ten minutes in the show with this family. My favorite episode was a couple who spoke no English but left for Canada, and he thought he had a trucker's license arranged, but didn't. Every week, another three families.

The Box

2010-09-29T00:11:00.001+02:00

As Americans arrive and get orientated to Germany...there are dozens of things that they tend to notice and ask silly questions about. One usually involves these phones you see along the autobahn.

It's typically an orange box, that stands about every three miles along the autobahn. Back in the old days before cellphones, this was your one and only method of getting help when you broke down. You'd walk a mile up the road and then speak into the box, and some German cop would answer back.

He'd ask a couple of questions and usually demonstrate a little English. You'd ask for a ADAC guy or a cop to come out.

With everyone having cellphones today, I'm guessing that in another generation....by 2030...there will be no more of the orange boxes along the autobahn. It'll be a antique that folks will remember and always tell a story about how they were broke down and then launch into a 15-minute story about that terrible Opel they had.

Gulash Soup

2010-09-28T05:02:00.001+02:00

There are two methods of having Gulash. The first is the full-up meal, which is a hearty dish. My favorite is always the Gulash Soup. There's a hundred ways of making the soup. The secret, in my humble opinion, is always to add a bit of spice and pepper...to make it a bit sharp in nature.

Typically, it's a lunch dish and it's inexpensive. You get one piece of bread with the soup.

If you have issues with hot or spicy foods...this might be the dish to avoid. You can always ask the cook to lessen the impact of the peppers, and hope just a pinch will be enough.

As for the "not enough" crowd? Well....between your soup, your bread, and your drink (typically a beer)....this will likely fill you up enough and give you the calories to make it through the afternoon. Will every restaurant serve it? No. There's usually three soups on a German menu, and it's simply luck if you find the Gulash Soup.

1 May 2011

2010-09-28T04:12:00.000+02:00

This is a day that will be historic in nature for Germans, and Austrians. This enormous gate will open up and Poles will have the chance to cross the border...legally, and seek employment. Up until that date....Poles had to have paperwork and they tended to "sneak" in and work quietly. They might work for weeks...maybe even months...until the Zollamt arrived to ask for papers.

So there's curious situation which will occur next summer as roofers, plumbers and electricians start to come over legally. There's going to be this competitive state of affairs...and some Germans are going to face competition that they haven't seen in years.

But there's another side to this whole game. Germany readily admits they've got a shortage of engineers and technicians. There's also this shortage of nurses.

The Polish government, based on media reports, isn't worried about this upcoming shift in employment or a possible brain-drain.

I might lean toward the Polish attitude. If you were heading up a Polish school with a bunch of fourteen year-old kids who show promise, then I'd hint everyday of engineering type jobs in Germany. The Polish kid would strive to stay ahead and in eight years...know that he's got a decent job with real pay. This might be the best incentive situation that you could ever offer smart kids. On the negative side? One out of every two kids might one day be exiting over to Germany for a highly technical job.

So stand by for 1 May next year. It might be a pretty dynamic day that the German media misses entirely.

Good Times Ahead?

2010-09-27T12:25:00.000+02:00

There's a statistic which is a bold indicator of good economic times in Germany, but most folks have no appreciation for it. It's tractor trailer rig sales. If you went to a small operation and asked the operations guy how to tell if business is improving....he'd eventually say something to the effect that everyone wants to trade in their rigs and get new trucks.

A Bloomberg Report note came out today.....for the month of August....there was a 54 percent increase in big truck sales.....up to 3,812 units last month.

Course, it's not yet the best moment to admit the German economy is in full bloom....but there sure are some positive indicators to say that.

People get this way because they can sense a change and they've got contracts in their hand which look awful positive over the next twelve months.

Elections?

2010-09-27T12:16:00.000+02:00

For those who didn't know...the term for a German chancellor or government isn't absolute.

There are certain triggers that can occur...at the national level or even the state level....where opposition can put the government folks up for another ballot or national election. This weekend, with various speeches.....you get the impression that folks are working toward another trigger.

The key sales job this weekend? The SPD came out and discussed the push on ending the life of nuclear power plants and getting folks retired before age 67. SPD folks got all pumped up, and the media covered the meetings and speeches as much as they could.

The funny thing here....which none of the media could explain.....how the government could come up with more pension money to allow folks to retire before age 67, or how to provide inexpensive power with the nuke plants turned off.

I sat and read two speeches and some German media analysis....and came to a point of wondering about these two major topics. Most Germans would get all pumped up and excited about these two topics. They don't ask questions after that point though.

If they knew that retirement before 67 was possible, with a ten percent cut in pension....they'd laugh and just walk away. If they knew you could turn off the nuke plants, and just buy more expensive nuclear power from Poland, Russia or France....they'd just turn around and walk away.

We may very well come to an early election....but questions might turn this into a lose-lose situation.

The Other 9-11

2010-09-25T12:38:00.001+02:00

The German TV crowd puts out money for small producers to do unusual documentaries. Sometimes, it's a one-hour show on Russian train and train stations. Sometimes, it's a 45-minute show on an Italian circus which has been around for thirty years. Sometimes, it's be a dull 88-minute documentary over a French family that lives on top of some mountain and haven't a neighbor within miles.

This weekend, there's a documentary to be shown....called the “Attack on America – Hitler’s 9-11.″

I'm thinking that the title might make you a bit curious. It actually takes this one odd and brief attack situation that occurred in 1942, and compares against the Al Qaeda attacks in 2001. This was an unusual moment....where Operation Pastorius might have shocked America.

When you stand and compare 9-11 to this operation....9-11 was just a one-brief moment deal. The German operation had a vast plan. The eight Germans involved in the 1942 plan had a number of targets: New York’s Penn Station, the hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls, as well as aluminum factories in Tennessee and Illinois.

The documentary will go back to one interesting point, where failure occurred. Two of the guys simply could not carry out their mission and did not want any blood on their hands. They ended up walking into a police station to admit everything. The curious thing....the cops didn't believe them. The FBI? They originally didn't believe them either.

It's a curious episode. If the eight had carried out their missions, and the potential to hit on the US was noted by Hitler's staff....then more teams would have been dispatched. You could have had dozens of Germans operating in the US by 1944 and blowing up dams left and right. The internal structure of the US would have never been able to catch up on these guys.

It might be an interesting documentary....with the only negative being that Speigel TV made it (the guys who are the combination of National Enquirer and New York Times).

The Regal

2010-09-25T12:17:00.000+02:00

This week, the Business Forum section of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had an interesting tale on Germany and cars.

Kinda hidden under the view of folks....GM, after the big bailout, started importing Buick Regals from Russelsheim, Germany. Now before you get excited.....21 percent of the car is still manufactured in the US (especially the engine).

The story doesn't tell much more of this German Buick....and deals mostly with the shady corruptive nature of GM instead.

They may have a point in that the bailout was supposed to be for mostly American purposes but kept international sides of the company going.

I blogged on my other site this week of the problem over drinking and marijuana smoking at a GM plant in Detroit. When people complain about poor quality or issues with brand new cars....the management tends to know the problem already but doesn't want to admit it.

When you go to a German car plant....you kinda note a very professional atmosphere. People take their profession serious and you just don't have drunks around the line. They bring through tours to be part of this atmosphere and everyone wants to show the positive side of their product. I can understand why GM might take the Buick line over to Russelsheim and trust in a better-made product.

The German guys at Russelsheim? They have to be shocked that they switched from a Opel product to a Buick. The comical thing is that it's still got the US engine...but if you wanted a true six or eight cyclinder engine with power....it might be the best place to buy such an engine.

So as you are down at the GM dealer and just scratching your head over mostly loser cars....take a look at the German-made Buick Regal. It is a bit fancy and probably shocking how everything is even and professionally installed. Maybe after you buy it....it might take three years before you spot one mistake on the car. Then you can smile because it was Karl's one brief moment of the year when he didn't line up the item to perfection. And the funny thing? Karl would be ashamed to admit that moment. Go find a Detroit guy who would be ashamed of something he screwed up on.

A Medical Story

2010-09-25T11:58:00.000+02:00

For those who didn't know....Germany has around six million diabetics. This week, the Bundestag took up a step that involved them....ending the practice of allowing food to be labeled as "suitable for diabetics". They basically took the advice of the medical profession....agreeing that sucrose-free jam ingredients offer no changes on your health situation.

This specialized market is worth over 130 million Euro (170 million dollar plus).

The selling point of this? If you are a diabetic and simply continued on a balanced diet and do exercise....you can have a piece of German Chocolate Cake.

I doubt that the diabetics of Germany will take this idea. You have to remember that Germans....once they start a trend or habit.....don't readily jump up and change it. The market will continue to have these specialized sucrose-free ingredients.

Our Boy Bahn

2010-09-24T02:58:00.005+02:00

I paused over this headline today....Deutsche Bahn Moves Toward Quality. Having been a participant and rider of Bahn's world-famous two-star service...I'm shocked.

This has to be a Twilight Zone-like moment.

The basic theme of this move? The boys at Bahn will have to spend €330 million ($400 million) to reach its targeted quality surge. Why 330 million? That's the first part of this puzzle. It's a round number.....not like 321 million, which means that it was an intended effect with no reality.

Then you start to think what the managers did over the summer period....to suddenly wake up and announce this. Did they spend their six weeks of summer vacation in a drunken spree at a cheap Mexican beach resort? Did they run off to New Orleans and just drink for sixteen hours a day? Did they ride the Siberian Express and just stumble off the train in the midst of the frozen tundra by accident one night?

Then you have to think about the CEO's suggestion. These guys must have had orders to make things appear better....for the boss to get plus points in the media. Will Bild now treat the 2-star train service differently? Will the kind folks at the Stuttgart newspaper actually mention CEO prominently each time they talk service? Will the Channel One folks at ARD just say one nice thing now about Bahn?

The problem with this Bahn business is that the public just wants the trains to run on time, and heat or cool according to the season. It's a brutally honest prospective here. Sure, you need a clean toilet available with better quality toilet paper. Sure, customers dream of an open seat on the Mannheim to Frankfurt noon train. Sure, it'd be nice to have a higher standard of food on the Munich to Hamburg train.

The truth is.....this 330 million....is going to be wasted. It's like US stimulus money. Its designed to flush down the Bahn toilet to make things look better but the truth is that you will simply think they are better, when they waste it on brighter colored cabins, first-class seats that have heating built into them, and the coffee service has gone up two notches with a world-brand now added.

A bold new world.....a Bahn of immense quality....and maybe the air conditioning will finally be fixed. Maybe.

Just Another Day in Paradise

2010-09-23T01:59:00.003+02:00

Zero shock.

You could have gone up to half of Germany and asked if they expected to pay more for healthcare care, and they would have smiled and said absolutely. The other half would have just grunted, asked for a beer, and started talking about the old days (you'd like to leave but they've blocked your path).

Today, the CDU/CSU/FDP government took the step and agreed on new health insurance rates. This affects affects somewhere around sixty-five percent of the nation. The rest of the folks? They are on private health care. They will sit and wait for the insurance company to announce just how much they want, and just suck it up to pay out of their own pocket.

The increase? We now go from 14.9 percent total on each person...to 15.5 percent.

The nice thing about this rise is that it's four months away and they can enjoy things through the end of this year.

This 15.5 percent relates to 8.2 percent on the worker, and 7.3 percent on the employer. If you wanted a guess on what this means to each individual, then start with a salary of 2,500 Euro per person ($3250 a month roughly, before taxes). This means $266 a month goes to the health care cost from the guy. It's another $10 a month that the guy is paying.

Across the nation? It has a ripple effect.

Germany is this amusing country where salary doesn't really rise. You could be working for some company since 1998, and you might have gotten two pay raises....each 2 percent. So everyone is behind on their pay because inflation continues on and things don't match up.

The health care system bumps up around $8 billion a year, and it keeps them in a good survival position for another three years probably, before the next rise in some fashion is necessary.

The comical part about this change? The government's Health Minister came out and wanted to defend this....and then said that it really helped because of the ageing population and the continued advancements in medical science. What he didn't mention was that the population is decreasing because of the birthrate, and that things are only stabilized because of the immigrants coming into Germany.

So this extra cost is just being taken out of the pocket of most Germans. They will whine about this. I'm guessing that the number one topic from the Sunday night political talk show will be this bump on the percentage. They will spend 90 minutes talking to the public from the left and right....with some journalist trying to explain why it's such a terrible thing but can't offer any other solution to make his case.

Ten Things to Know About German Politics

2010-09-21T11:10:00.003+02:00

First, you do have more choices than the typical American. You've got the Greens. You've got the pro-business/anti-tax FDP. You've got the lightly leaning to the right CDU. You've got the Bavarian leaning to the right CSU. You've got the leaning to the left SPD. You've got the far left left-over communist Linke Party. Then you've got at least twenty-five other parties throughout the country which amount to two or three percent of the total population. In fact, you've got so many alternate parties....that you really can't pick one because you still aren't happy.

Second, corruption runs along the same levels as you might note in the US. It tends to be more creative. Mayor gets worthless project to be developed. Mayor hands contract to special friend. Special friend overcharges by 200 percent. Mayor's other friend gets concrete portion of contract and flips funds over to his mayor friend. Project is completed but is considered worthless by general public. Everyone looks away and says little to nothing.

Third, party meetings always occur on weekends and becomes this "flower show" where speeches are made and the media eagerly covers these for their Sunday night analysis. After a while, you feel sorry for all these party members (into the hundreds) who attend these meetings and give up their weekend every three or four months to make this "flower show" work.

Fourth, Sunday night is this meeting of the minds when it comes to politics. Around 9:45PM, there's a moderated show where members of various parties show up and get their chance to say something stupid. One gets the impression that it's almost like a NASCAR event because folks are waiting in anticipation for some guy to stumble and make his party look bad.

Fifth, to run things, you need fifty percent or more. This means that highest vote-getter in the general election is given a chance to partner up with someone. You end up having to give away various positions in the cabinet to make this work. So you could have a pro-business/anti-tax guy in the finance department, and a right-leaning conservative in the military department, and some mad Bavarian conservative in charge of the homeland department.

Sixth, the chief item of interest in a big political fight is always the discussion of taxes or the creativity in taxing people differently. Don't worry....taxes never truly decrease in Germany.

Seventh, most Germans....probably over eighty percent, vote always in the same fashion. It's the twenty percent group of independent Germans that radically shift every election. So political parties are building their entire message and vision for only twenty percent of the country.

Eighth, there's no limit on the number of years that a guy could be Chancellor. So if you were really popular, you could stay around for years and years.

Ninth, if you get voted in as President of Germany....it merely means that you are a nice individual who meets and greets visiting dignitaries or attends funerals. You're still number two, with the Chancellor really in charge of the country. It's a nifty job at the end of your career with plenty of free coffee, travel, and free booze.

Tenth, Germans....like Americans....tend to be negative about politicians coming to your door and claiming they just want to help you.

Ten Rules on German Toilets

2010-09-20T08:39:00.002+02:00

First, when you board a German train or stop at a German train station....if you expect anything other than sandpaper-style toilet paper....you are kidding yourself. Buy some soft stuff and carry it with you when you travel via train. Why do they maintain this standard? Cheapness throughout the Bahn world.

Second, when you travel on these cheapo bus tours, and Huns pulls up with the 3-star bus to carry you and your forty buddies on a day-trip to Mannheim....don't expect much of the bus toilet. If it flushes....you should be happy enough. If it's big enough for you to actually lower your pants without knocking your head against the door....that's a great feature. If Huns actually left some nice smelling soap there, that's a plus.

Third, ADAC (your friendly car club) has a rating system for autobahn rest stops and toilets. Naturally, you'd laugh when this is mentioned but after you've been to twenty of these....you realize that there are some one-star autobahn toilets where it's fairly nasty and you should avoid these. So joining ADAC and reading up on these statistics might be helpful.

Fourth, when you buy a house in Germany....the first thing after you get settled in....is to get a relationship with a local plumber you can trust. Some Germans will stick with their plumber for forty years....just to ensure he comes over in an emergency when you desperately need his help in the toilet.

Fifth, if you've gotten use to US-made soft toilet paper....no matter how far you look over your local German shop....you will never find the same quality stuff. So either accept the number two quality or start looking for an American who has access to the military commissary system on US bases.

Sixth, German women are awful particular about what smell you leave in their toilet. If you visit a neighbor and have to unload a foul smell in their toilet....it's best to spray as much as you can....open the windows....and just hope her anger isn't raging. You may never be invited back. It's best to leave early and do your business in your own toilet.

Seventh, typically your friendly bar toilet in your village pub is cleaned once a week and kept in good condition. One out of every three toilets in a pub are likely unheated. In small restaurants....it's just as bad. It's best to do your business and leave as quickly as possible.

Eighth, when you see a lady sitting at the entrance of the hall for autobahn or county fair bathrooms....she's the cleaning lady. You will notice a plate in front of her with change. It's the custom that you toss in 50 cents minimum. She is ensuring some sanitary customs are maintained. Don't sit there and think this is a free deal.

Ninth, when you've been at a fest of some type and the vast number of folks are fairly drunk and you notice dozens of men just walking outside and leaning against some building or wall to urinate....no, it's not the custom or accepted by the locals. The cops will apprehend you for some charge, if they feel like it.

Tenth, German guys have no issue in just pulling over by the side of the road and relieving themselves right there. Folks will drive by and just notice....saying nothing. Everyone hates this image, but half of the German male population readily accepts this as OK.

Ten Rules of the Road For Germany

2010-09-19T12:25:00.003+02:00

This is my list of things that ought to be remembered when it comes to driving in Germany. Sarcastically spoken of course.

First, while you might think speed limits on the autobahn are unlimited....it's actually a defined territory, and every year...it shrinks a little. Eventually, in one hundred years....it'll all be a one-hundred kilometer-per-hour speed situation. If you think crusing along at 180 kph is cool.....make sure your car and tires are that safe.

Second, if you drink and drive....your entire life may be going down the tubes. They mean every bit of the threat when they say they will take your license away for a year. So drink in your local village and walk home.

Third, there are at least eighty-eight different scenarios at a four-way crossing involving a a blonde, a horse & wagon, scooter, car, farm tractor, or tractor-trailer rig. Try to memorize twenty of them and just give up on the rest.

Fourth, it's unwritten German law that when you come up on a accident where it's a huge mess with rescue personnel in full control to slow down to walking speed and gawk as much as you can. Then when you get home, call your nearest friends and relatives to describe the situation completely.

Fifth, German car tax is all relative to horsepower. So if you really truly want that 150-horsepower Audi....you will pay for it in some fashion for a long, long time.

Sixth, it's true that you can apply for a license of a vehicle that can't go beyond 25 kilometers-per-hour. These are those small two-cylinder type cars and you typically see them with older folks. For some reason, these have caught on with teen drivers for cheap and inexpensive transportation around urban areas in the last couple of years.

Seventh, the reliability of the blitz camera is going down a notch every single year. In every major community, you've got people with the hobby of examining the speed cameras, their effect, their limits, and every single picture they take. When these experts walk into a court and sit down....the cops and the county prosecutor start to fidget....they know they can't beat the expert. My advice is that if you were speeding and just ten to twenty KPH over....pay the fine and just walk away. If it's more than twenty....consider the help of an expert.

Eighth, the MAUT tax only effects truckers today. Eventually, there is every hope by the government guys in desperate need of more tax revenue to extend the autobahn scanner capability to regular cars. Eventually, you will be charged for mile that you go on the autobahn. It may take ten years...perhaps even twenty....but you will pay another tax.

Ninth, winter tires are for winter, and summer tires for summer. Don't mix and match these. Running winter tires into July.....will just quickly wear them down. Driving on summer tires in December is just plain stupid, and will get you a ticket if they notice. Winter tires are made to grip on a cold surface. And yes, you still need snow-chains if you get into thick snow so keep them in the trunk of your car.

Tenth, when the cops pull you over...act friendly. If you pull any kind of hostile nature out....your situation deteriorates rapidly.

Enough is Enough?

2010-09-18T12:49:00.002+02:00

I wrote a blog recently on my other site that had to do with this prevailing attitude of "enough is enough" when it came to rich people being told to just stop excess wealth.

It's an attitude in the US that you've begun to see in the past year and you always reach a point of smiling or grinning when you think about this long enough.

This week....the SPD's former Finance Minister...Peer Steinbrück....put his "enough is enough" comments out there again the rich folks of Germany. He hints that the German rich are simply take their excess funds and hiding them...which doesn't allow your friendly and 'blessed' government the chance to collect taxes on this excess. Then he wanted you to know that this attitude simply keeps German social problems going on in full power.

It is absolutely true that rich Germans are making an effort to move their money outside of Germany....to areas of the world where you make a profit, and you don't see a tax man at the door to collect on your profit.

It is also absolutely true that middle-class Germans....like plumbers, roofers, and carpenters are also moving to this trait.....and taking their tens of thousands of Euro a year of hidden profit outside of Germany as well.

In fact, if all middle-class Germans could take a couple of thousand Euro quietly outside of the country....to avoid taxation....they would.

The entire society has become conditioned in this situation. Enough is enough? It's a comical socialist idea that the rich need to pay for the non-rich. The problem is that it gets to proportionally out-of-whack. When you have plumbers making 20k Euro a year for weekend work and they realize the tax implication...that they've become part of the elite "rich"....then they act the same way.

Years ago, I had some co-worker in Germany who told me about his neighbor who had this relationship with some Polish guys. The German would buy a property that needed alot of work, for a cheap price. He'd bring in his Polish team for three months and rehab the entire house. Then he'd find an American family in the Kaiserslautern area to rent the house for 200 percent of what was normal. The Polish maintenance guys were paid half of what you'd pay a German (illegal of course). Enough is enough? The German guy saw this as his moment to make profit off a lousy standing house in need of drastic repairs.

I suspect that this grand speech about "enough is enough" will go around for a week, and then disappear. Taxation will continue at the same rate. And rich folks will hide wealth just as they've done for decades.

The Gypsies

2010-09-18T12:35:00.004+02:00

A few weeks ago....France finally said enough, and started a program to move gypsies out of France. French people generally have the same negative view of gypsies as Germans. Gypsies move into an area...rarely ever take real jobs....and crime moves upward for a month or two, then they move to another area.

The EU chiefs of politics are upset about this policy in France and have made several comments that would be taken as negative.

So far in Germany....the political machine has kept quiet. The Germans don't plan any kind of toss-out program. At the end of their statements....they admit they have a fair number of gypsies and would like for them to find peace in their homeland, and go home.

If you went out across a typical German community of 2,000 people...I doubt that you'd find more than five folks who would say anything positive over gypsies. The vast majority would let you know that they don't trust them and they'd have major problems if any gypsies showed up in the local camp ground.

There is honest distrust. You've got a group of society who simply refuse to settle down, get a real job, pay taxes, or establish themselves. The criminal element becomes an obvious threat which the national government never wants to discuss or get involved in. So the small-town cops are left to handle it on their own and try to avoid accusations of being anti-gypsy. The French government finally said enough....and the German government is standing there and wondering about doing the same. Just my humble opinion.

A Little Bit of Beer Pumps Up the Economy

2010-09-16T11:29:00.004+02:00

The Wall Street Journal pointed something on Germany that would make a true Baptist weep and cry over....beer saving an economy in some way.

Seventeen days of plain old-fashioned drinking will start up in Munich on Saturday in celebration of Oktoberfest.

Some smart economic folks sat down and figured out that a billion Euro ($1.3 dollars) will be spent within the region of Munich on food, beer, shopping, beer, transportation, beer, hotels, beer, t-shirts, and beer. Thats two percent.....of the GDP of the region. It's an unbelievable amount of money....from one party or fair or celebration.

Even if the price of beer (for a liter) has escalated up to just over $11...it doesn't change anything. In three years, I'm even wagering that it'll be fairly close to $12. It just doesn't matter.

Your average tourist that comes long distance to be at the celebration...will likely stay at least two nights in a local hotel. It might even be a hotel that's twenty-five miles away because everything else is rented. They will eat at least $75 worth of food over the three days there. And they will always buy one of those wannabe-a-local beer steins...just to take back home and show off as their reminder of the drunken times in Munch.

There are bus-loads of folks from regional areas four to six hours away...that will drop off 55 passengers for eight hours. The 55 folks will spend at least a hundred bucks each on food and beer, before stumbling back onto the bus at 8PM for the long drive home.

This plus-up on the economy of Germany because of beer, would worry up a true Baptist who believe in dry country living. Something about profits and such would make this a truly bad thing. But the truth is that the economy of Germany needs a little plus-up like this. In fact, if they knew they could sustain it, I'd be betting that locals would agree to a 30-day window of celebration instead of the seventeen days. But it'd take an awful lot out of the folks to party on for an extra twelve days. So you got to take what you can get.

Countdown

2010-09-15T12:14:00.005+02:00

The countdown is starting for Oktoberfest....Saturday...in Munich. If you don't go, you go watch for nightly updates on drunks and ambulance runs out of the beer-gardens area.

If you wanted a real comparison in the US....just imagine a state fair....where liberal and abundant amounts of beer were offered (say 3 quarts) and it had a 7.5 alcohol rate to it. Then toss in liberal amounts of salted pork or chicken. And top it off with a fair amount of schnapps.

Hartz IV to Basisgeld?

2010-09-15T12:05:00.003+02:00

Various newspapers are reporting in Germany today that the term "Hartz IV" will be transformed.

The welfare program term has become derogatory since invented in 2002. This reinvented welfare program from the 2005-period is used daily by the news media throughout Germany and usually represents a negative story (against the government).

Everyone felt by the late 1990s that welfare was becoming an actual occupation and people were getting a substantial amount of money live a fairly good lifestyle. No one felt the system could sustain itself in the long run. So it had to be changed. Hartz IV become this chopping block where you got the basic necessities of life and that was the end of the deal.

The new name? They are bouncing this name of "Basisgeld" (basic money). This isn't final yet and still has to pass via a vote. I'm pretty sure it'll be a 100 percent vote...well...except for the Greens.

In five years...Basisgeld will also have a mean or ugly feeling to it, and it'll change again. That's the tendency of these events.

Trains and Buses

2010-09-14T02:24:00.003+02:00

A couple of years ago...Wal-Mart came to Germany and felt it could "compete". It discovered about three years into this experience that Germany has stringent rules about competition and their vision of competition was considered unhealthy and illegal. They eventually decided their business model would not take off and give them the potential they enjoy in the US.

Today, via the New York Times, we learned that a long-standing anti-competition rule has finally been tossed. Sometime in 2011, you will be able to climb on a bus in Munich and actually end up in another German city....like Stuttgart or Heidelberg.

Yes, for almost eight decades...you just couldn't travel a long-distance within German borders via a bus, unless it was a tour. You could travel from Frankfurt to Paris. You could travel from Stuttgart to Amsterdam. But getting from one German city to another, just wasn't possible.

This was a protection deal for the Bahn folks. The train network made sure they had no competition. In the 1950s as air travel did finally occur, the Bahn folks couldn't say much. But the bus folks never could get the government to change the rule for them. It was a stupid rule by all accounts.

What'll happen now? Well...it's a curious thing. The Bahn could come up and match prices against the bus companies. For a short term strategy, this is likely the best possible direction for the Bahn. But the bus companies will be able to offer some dynamic changes for folks that the Bahn can't match, like picking up a load of thirty passengers in some smaller dead-end town like Kaiserslautern or Trier, and delivering into the heart of the Frankfurt shopping district in just eighty minutes. The Bahn can't deliver that precisely.

Added to this are the worker rides. Imagine a morning bus route that hits five smaller towns about sixty miles away from Mainz and it delivers folks to the nearest trolley car connection for the city. Guys could leave the car at home and pay 150 Euro a month for this direct run to their job in the big city.

My prediction is that the Bahn will realize that it doesn't have the upper hand to this deal, and the majority of these bus routes will end up being profitable. For the little guy with enough money to buy two buses and able to start a run from a rural area to a major shopping area....this might be a great investment opportunity.

The Stuttgart Mess

2010-09-13T11:21:00.004+02:00

I blogged a piece a few weeks ago about the Stuttgart train station renovation....a ten-year project that would go into the billions. At that point, it was starting. In the past couple of weeks since the start....it's been an almost daily routine with protesters. We aren't talking about dozens or hundreds....it's into the thousands on a daily basis.

The Stuttgart political leadership never anticipated this type of reaction to the project. Over this past weekend....at least 65k people met and protested.

There's talk of the political leadership trying to arrange for meetings this week with the head protesters and trying to get agreements. Based on several newspapers and what they write, I'd say there's virtually no agreement possible. It's almost a comical opera now....in terms of the public perceptions of the project.

Today, the police finally came forward and said all these protests since day one....are wearing out the effectiveness of the local force. They want reinforcements. Added to this mess, the local cops still have to protect folks at the local soccer games and cover the local nuclear power plant. On a average night at the soccer stadium, there's well over four hundred cops involved in that detail for five hours of work.

The Stuttgart 21 project is massive. It'll cover eighteen brand-new bridges being built, and three city train stations being erected. And then you've got well over fifty miles of track that have to be laid in newly created tunnels throughout the entire city.

If you stand back and add up man-hours on this police episode and multiply by ten years, then you've likely spent an additional five hundred million on extra cops and protection throughout the entire period. The city might end up with the largest police force of any city in Germany. The amusing side of this is that it doesn't relate to crime, and cops are being pulled from regular patrols and law enforcement, to play games with the Stuttgart 21 protesters.

I don't see much positive action on this episode. It's going to be a long ten year period.

End of a Generation?

2010-09-12T11:33:00.005+02:00

If you have ten minutes and an interest in green energy or wind mills....you might want to wander over to the British Telegraph. There's a fascinating story today.

The story relates to wind mills and Denmark. It appears that interest in building more windmills in the country....has finally peaked.

I've blogged this on a number of occasions...having traveled across Europe and seen the various issues up close.

If you can find an open area....miles away from civilization or cattle....windmills would readily thrive and multiply. The problem is that they put out a low-frequency noise. Any windmill within a mile of a village or home....disturbs people on a minute-by-minute basis. The experts now realize that you've got to put windmills out far away from civilization or people....to make this work.

While the story mainly describes Denmark's peak.....I would suspect the same issue for Germany. You can drive through central Germany on any afternoon and see dozens of windmills. The vast majority are all within a mile or two of some village. In the past couple of years after learning their lessons....most villages will now forbid any windmill construction near their town.

An eventual peak in Germany? I suspect that the "anti" crowd will eventually generate enough support and make it difficult to put a windmill anywhere. The ones currently in operation? I suspect if any lie within a mile or so of a village....they've got maybe a decade of operation left in them....before the locals chase them out. The ones in more remote locations will survive on.

That Luther Guy

2010-09-10T02:40:00.012+02:00

Lets say you corner a German in a bar and you ask them to name the ten most significant Germans ever. It's a discussion topic that will shock an American in the end.

The German will pause and settle back in his seat. He'll sit and calculate for a minute or two. Then he'll lead off.

At least five of these guys will be political figures. The first guy will always be Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor after World War II. Everyone has this enormous respect for the guy and what had to be done in those days. He acted presidential and you can't find a single person to today to ever criticize anything this guy ever did.

Then Helmet Schmidt will be mentioned. For Germans....this guy is the Holy Grail of leaders. You can take him into a room and announce some colossal emergency and he goes into action and gives orders like a drill sergeant. He leads people to an end purpose. It's been twenty-five years since he wrapped up his chancellor duties and folks still view him today as an absolute legend. This is the guy that you can view today....in his eighties....who chain-smokes and still runs through two packs a day (my guess). He can still walk into a hotel or building where smoking is illegal and light-up....and not a person will ever say a word. He commands respect.

Then you've got Helmet Kohl who ran Germany for sixteen years and his glitter disappeared by the end. Most Germans still have this positive attitude about the guy. Some will openly criticize him for staying too long and probably becoming somewhat corrupted at the end.

For the fourth and fifth positions...it'll be toss-ups. There's Green Party folks like Petra Kelly or Joschka Fischer. There's your friendly Bavarian political boss....Franz Josef Strauss. Erich Honecker might be mentioned....even if he was the East German boss at the end as the wall collapsed.

Around the sixth spot will always be Ludwig II...the crazy Bavarian king who built the dream castle. He captures the mind and creativity of Germans. Bavarians still have this mythical view of the guy.

By the seventh and eighth position, you come to Richard Wagner or Bach or Beethoven. At least two will always be mentioned.

The ninth? Franz Beckenbauer typically gets mentioned. Der Kaiser. Most Americans would laugh that a soccer coach would rate into the top ten. Remember, this is a regular German at a pub....and they would have this view of the Kaiser holding the crown jewels of German attitude and vision on the field. If the Kaiser says something...it's typically worth remembering....that's what a German would say.

Then we come to the tenth man. The shocker here is that it's a religious figure who has been dead for four-hundred and fifty-odd years. Martin Luther. Most Americans can't envision how anyone would equate a religious figure to a top ten position. Germans have this different view of his achievements, and it lives on today.

If you put yourself in 1500's Germany....it's a country of have's and have-not's. Out of a hundred men, five have something to own, and ninety-five are just surviving. Somewhere in the midst of this daily existence for both....is the Catholic Church.

The church held power over the Kings, the Princes, the Lords, and even the little guys at the end of the line. The church had this franchise-like mentality. They wanted to come into every community and build up a church. And in significant towns....they wanted a cathedral. The difference between a church and a cathedral in today's world? It's like comparing a two-story mom & pop storefront, and then a Super Wal-Mart. Cost became this huge factor in the construction of every single cathedral.

So if you were a Bishop somewhere....to move up the food chain ladder....you needed to build cathedrals. Kings, Princes and Lords had this pocket of money....and the Catholic Church went after as much as they could get....but this wasn't enough. So this scheme was hatched to go after the little guy and his money.

The deal was simple....you create these sermons where sin was going to forbid you entry into heaven. The little guy was stupid enough to believe the deal....and then you offer up this special letter which was stamped, and it'd suggest that you were sin-free as of the date it was "sold".

For this one priest who was close to having a nervous breakdown because of his seriousness nature into religion....this smacked of a commercial nature. The comical thing was that the special letter would be sold on one week....and within a month....the local church bosses would convince you that new sins had been committed....so you'd need a whole new letter stamped. More cash would be involved.

Martin Luther becomes this magnet for trouble. He won't sit by and just let this happen.

An internal battle within the leadership of what exists in Germany in the 1500s now starts to emerge. In the end, the mighty Catholic Church emerges as the loser. This mythical character of a simple priest that stood up....now becomes a legend that endears to even this day.

It was a battle between good and evil, as far as most Germans see it.

So a simple priest from 450-odd years ago, ends up as the tenth man that most Germans would put on their list.

The End of a German Company?

2010-09-10T02:12:00.005+02:00

To tell this story...I need to introduce the chief player....Beate Uhse.

For an American, you've likely never heard of the company. It's on the German stock market and up until a few years ago....was making money. It's the "Sears" of German sex shops.

Typically, if you walk into a Beate Uhse shop....it's a medium sized shop that features just about every item that you could dream up. Their reputation is based on being the friendly shop where either a guy or gal could walk in....with any weird taste, and find exactly what they need. Complimenting this...was their catalog effort.

For a number of years...they had built up a very organized business and actually have a great business reputation for what they actually sell.

But things in the last couple of years have gone downward, and they are reaching a point where profits are difficult to maintain, and they are searching for some way to soar back to the top. This leads us to their latest idea....announced today....3-D adult movies.

In the video market....Beate Uhse was actually getting three-quarters of his business from video sales when you go back over a decade ago. Today...it's just under twenty percent of their business. They are thinking this 3-D interest in the past year...will be a curious thing in the adult community.

I pondered over this idea. Twenty years ago...this might have been accepted. People still went to theaters. There really aren't 3-D TV's yet, and if you do find them....it's way more than the average German would ever pay. But this trend to run down to an adult theater to see 3-D? It just won't happen.

My prediction here is that Beate Uhse is on its last legs. It'll spend the money to make this one last big effort...and maybe produce a dozen of these videos....and then watch the banks close its operation. It'll take a year or two after the first release but this is likely a company that is coming to an end.

A buyer for it? Why? It's not a business where number two's really exist. You've got a bunch of small market Italian, Spanish or French guys who can probably step in sell their wares....and thats about the best you can see develop.

Germans and Drinking

2010-09-09T08:41:00.006+02:00

I had a southerner once ask me if Germans had any dry counties. I looked at the guy for about 20 seconds and responded that for something like this to come up....a German was fully prepared to start another world war, if necessary.

You can line a hundred German guys, and around ninety-eight will readily consume a beer at a moment's notice. One will limit himself to wine only because of his good taste. And the last guy will ask for a wine-water mix. It's rare that you find any guy who is a "dry" individual. German women are mostly the same way...although wine might be the preferred choice over beer.

Alcoholics? There are these folks around. You tend to have a lesser number than you'd anticipate. The fear of losing your license is enough to make most folks limit their drinking to their village and their local pub. So they walk over....drink a couple of beers....and walk back. The judges won't hesitate to take your license for a full year. There's no hesitation on their part to fix a problem. They even added a funny rule for folks under 21....if you have a license and get caught drunk....it's fairly severe.

You tend to know the real alcoholics in your village...they all walk from place to place. Their license was revoked years ago and they never got it back.

Excessive drinking? You don't see alot of this unless there's a fest in the town. At that point, everyone probably over-drinks. The interesting thing is that you don't see fights occur. German drunks tend to just say silly things, or relieve themselves on the street, or just collapse in a city park.

If you are invited over to a German house....which tends to mean that they have taken you to the inner-circle of their friendly nature, then you will be offered a drink. If you are a teetotaler American....don't worry. You can always ask for mineral water or a soda, and it's totally acceptable. If you do accept the beer or wine....don't do anything stupid by getting drunk on your first visit to the neighbor's house (it'd be in pretty bad taste). Wait till the tenth trip when you both are sipping some cherry schnapps.

You can say some negative things and dwell on this topic a while, but face the facts....a German has worked hard for the simpler things in life. You can't take away this little desire for a tasty beer. This would be the last society on the face of the Earth where a "dry-county" initiative would be brought up and discussed. The German would likely want to engage you deeply into this conversation....and keep offering you a beer to show you their hospitality. Eventually, they'd weaken you enough....and convert you back to the "dark" side.

The Educational Report

2010-09-08T04:16:00.003+02:00

I've blogged about this before. Bill Gates came to Germany in the mid-1990s, and made a significant speech about the underwhelming attitude of the German university system to produce the necessary computer engineers of the future. It was blunt and deflected quickly. The German folks in charge of the university system told the 'mere' Bill Gates that he knew nothing about their system. Eighteen months after Bill Gates...German technology companies came to the Bundestag and demanded green cards to bring in the necessary folks to produce their products. The university system then admitted that they weren't capable of doing the job.

Today...swipe two occurred.

The Local reports this today....the country is producing too few university graduates to sustain its supply of engineers and technicians...across the entire board. The numbers even indicate that a massive increase in spending would have to occur.

It's a fairly long effort by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development....500 pages.

Again, we go back to the Gates scenario....if they don't correct their operations...import of intelligent and university-trained immigrants will be mandatory.

There are several ways to review the data and come to various conclusions. First, the massive number of Germans who go through the university system....have nothing to do with technology. You've got a significant number who are basically headed toward a life of boredom within the insurance industry, teaching, and journalism. You've also got the arts crowd....left to study music, dancing, and the dead language of Latin.

The blunt side of the report goes against engineering and technology. In this aspect, the report might be very accurate. Unlike the US system....the German university hasn't exactly been a operation of change.

I suspect this is more of a poke in the side of the university management crowd. The sad thing is that they'd have to have more government funding in a time when it's not appropriate to ask for more funds. They'd have to take that funding, then turn in a fashion to gage the necessary changes, and bring in a larger crowd. And this assumes that the high school system of Germany can produce the numbers required.

I have doubts about the success of this angle of change. You are asking alot out of the system. In the end, they might have been better off inviting the University of Alabama to come into Germany and set up shop on some former American Air Base....and then develop an entire different option on university education....within the German system. Then, you'd have to accept that degree as being the same value (something of a miracle).